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I BLEW AN EAR-SPLITTING BLAST 

(Page 20.) 



CAPTAIN TIPTOP 

A Story from the Log-Book 
of the Sloop-Yacht 
Tycoon 


FRED. E. JANETTE 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

W. Herbert Dunton 


The Saalfield Publishing Co. 

New York AKRON, OHIO Chicago 





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^■y.'0 OlOWBS <<«t«(VibU 

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Copyright, 1905, 

BY 

'IiiE Saalfield Publishing Company 



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I 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction 8-9 

I Begins with a Disaster 11 

II An Eccentric Gentleman 22 

III Captain Tiptop Plays Detective 28 

IV Captain Tiptop Takes Command 39 

V Personality of Captain Eckert 47 

VI What a Spyglass Revealed 56 

VII Miss Thyra Benson 66 

VIII Cousin Tony and Captain Tiptop 75 

IX A Sentinel and a Spy 85 

X The Crevice in a Door 93 

XI Denny’s Adventures 101 

XII In Pursuit of Knowledge 109 

XIII Ventures Much, Gains Little 117 

XIV Cousin Tony’s Sunny Side 127 

XV The Plotters Make a Move 134 

XVI Captain Tiptop Walks into a Trap 143 

XVII A Futile Search 153 

XVIII Seven Men in a Boat 161 

XIX A Familiar Figure 171 

XX Thyra’s Pointed Inquiry 180 

XXI A Struggle in the Dark 188 

XXII A Tale of Captivity 197 

XXIII The Mate as a Jailer 205 

XXIV “Fessenden, Ahoy!” 213 

XXV Taking on a Cargo 222 

XXVI The Girl with a Bicycle 231 

XXVII A Brief but Decisive Battle 240 

XXVIII The Beginning of the End 249 

XXIX Eckert Plays his Last Card 256 

XXX Frustrated Designs 263 

XXXI An Explanation 271 




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ILLUSTRATIONS 


PACK 

I blew an ear-splitting blast ..... Frontispiece 

All this Denny observed at a glance 100 

Then I crept to the edge of the veranda and looked 

over 190 

Amidst stifling smoke and fumes of oil we struggled 250 


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To the Reader: 

This is the writer’s first story to appear in 
book form. He believes, however, that he 
has many friends among readers who find 
pleasure, and perhaps some instruction not 
of a harmful sort, in that class of literature 
which pertains to ‘ ‘ boys and boats. ” It is in 
the hopeful expectation that ‘‘Captain Tip- 
top” (who is not altogether a fictitious per- 
sonage), will find a place in the reader’s ap- 
preciation with others of his heroes, who 
have figured in serial fiction, that he steps 
out of the story to speak a word direct. 

Old friends will discover that, as were 
several of the stories alluded to, this is a 
story of the Great Lakes— this is a story of 
Lake St. Clair and the Detroit river. The 
writer has always preferred to locate his 
stories in territory with which he is familiar 
through personal experiences ; and he could 
conceive of no reason why the practice 
should be departed from in this instance. 
Certainly the indicated field is large enough. 
Indeed, it has been but indifferently culti- 


8 


vated by story writers. It abounds in ma- 
terials for good story-making, necessitating 
no reprehensible deviation from the truth. 
There is a certain proportion of truth in the 
story here presented. Just how much it is 
not expedient to state, for there are persons 
yet alive on the scene of the adventures of 
^‘Captain Tiptop’^ and his friends, who 
would not consider a more particular dis- 
closure as an evidence of good taste on the 
part of the writer. 

In conclusion, it may be fair to record that 
this is a story without a moral, in the ordi- 
nary acceptance of the term. The writer re- 
poses in the conviction that the activities of 
the average boy and girl can be commend- 
ably reflected without infringing on the 
plain duties of parents and guardians. If 
he has succeeded; there is no more question 
of morality with regard to this story, than 
there would be about a game of baseball or 
a boat-ride on the river. 


Detroit, Mich. 


F. E. J. 


CHAPTER I. 


Begins with a Disaster. 

Tis eight bells— twelve o’clock— Cap- 
tain Tiptop. Time for you to take your trick 
at the helm.” 

These words were addressed to me, and 
they were accompanied by a vigorous shake 
of my shoulder. I sat up in my berth, wide 
awake in an instant, for my slmnbers had 
been light. Truly enough, the hands of the 
clock up against the forward end of the 
trunk-cabin, blended into one, covered the 
topmost figure of the dial, proclaiming the 
hour of twelve, or eight bells, in the sea par- 
lance of my friend, Dennis Cleary. 

Dennis Cleary was the crew of the sixty- 
four foot, center-board sloop-yacht Tycoon. 
My most particular friend. Perry Benson, 
and I, Hugh Rodman, comprised the re- 
mainder of the yacht’s company. The Ty- 
11 


12 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


coon, one of the largest single-stickers on the 
Great Lakes at the time, was my property. 
My companions had tried to fasten upon 
me the title of Captain Eodman. This 
sounded stilted, and I opposed it. The nick- 
name ‘‘Captain Tiptop,’’ I owed to Denny 
Cleary, who was a whimsical chap, as you 
will learn if you follow this story. He had 
an idea that he was paying me an immense 
compliment. The new title suited me no 
better than the other, but no hint served to 
make Denny see the point, and Perry, ob- 
serving my modesty in the matter, straight- 
way adopted the use of it. And so Captain 
Tiptop I became on board the sloop, and as 
Captain Tiptop I salute the reader. 

“What is the weather, Denny"?” I asked, 
as I swung out of the berth and stood up. 

“No change. The lake is as smooth as the 
minister’s face on Sunday, and there isn’t 
enough air stirring to make a match flicker.” 

“Is it raining? T don’t hear it.” 

The question was prompted by Denny’s 
bedraggled appearance. He wore an oilskin 
coat and tarpaulin hat, and upon these ha- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


13 


biliments beads of moisture glistened in the 
light of the cabin lamp. 

^‘Fog/^ was his short explanation; and he 
doffed the hat and slapped it against his 
thigh, scattering a shower of drops over the 
cabin carpet. 

^^Fog! Then we’re in a worse fix than 
ever.” 

‘‘We are, Captain Tiptop. The wind was 
dying when you and Perry turned in at ten 
o’clock. It’s giving the last gasps now, com- 
ing in cat’s paws that are hardly strong 
enough to lift the main sheet out of the 
water. It’s lucky we are in the lake and not 
in the river, or we’d have to get the mud- 
hook out. When the wind lay down to rest 
the fog came along and spread a blanket over 
it. It’s so thick now that you couldn’t shoot 
a hole through it with a howitzer.” 

I was used to Denny’s grandiose speech 
and, making due allowance, came to a quick 
understanding of what our situation was. 
We were becalmed in a fog bank on Lake 
St. Clair. We had left the little town of Al- 
gonac, on the St. Clair River, about noon the 
day before, with a light wind from east- 


14 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


northeast. Up to the time Perry and I 
turned in, leaving Denny at the helm, we 
logged perhaps three miles an hour. I hoped 
that as the night wore out the wind would 
shift and rise. For a certain reason I was 
in a great hurry to reach Detroit, which was 
my home and that of my companions, and 
the hailing port of the Tycoon. It now ap- 
peared, from Denny’s account, that the wind 
instead of rising had fallen, and that a fog 
had settled down upon us. 

However much the weather failed to meet 
with my approval, there was no way to fix it, 
as Denny cheerfully remarked. Having 
donned my ordinary attire I drew out of 
the locker under my berth a suit of oilskins 
and clambered up into the cockpit. Denny 
followed. As I straightened up to look 
about, my ears were smitten by a discordant 
blast from a horn. 

‘^They’re piping it up on board the 
schooner over there,” said Denny, pointing 
over my shoulder. 

Out over our port-quarter could dimly be 
discerned the loom of a schooner with all 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


15 


canvas set. Like the Tycoon, she rested 
nearly motionless in the water. 

‘‘We can^t do better than follow their ex- 
ample,” said I. “Will you bring me the 
horn? You will find it in the galley in the 
lower locker on the starboard side.” 

Denny went forward, passing through the 
cabin. While he was gone I took a survey of 
the sloop ’s surroundings. 

The Tycoon, under mainsail, topsail, and 
jib with bonnet on, and with helm lashed 
nearly amidships, was drifting on the level 
surface of the lake, hardly more than keep- 
ing pace with the sluggish current which sets 
through it from the St. Clair River. Half 
the time the tip of the boom, hanging over 
the starboard side and burdened with can- 
vas, trailed in the water ; but ever and anon 
there came a puff of wind that blew the fog 
in streaks like smoke and bellied out the 
cloth. At these times the boom would lift 
and the sheet tighten, only to drop back into 
the water again as the flaw went by and the 
calm supervened. 

I removed the line with which Denny had 
lashed the tiller. As I did so there came two 


16 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


more blasts from the horn on the deck of the 
vessel over the port-quarter. 

Those chaps must be mortally afraid of 
being run down, or else they’re amusing 
themselves piping a dismal tune for the mer- 
maids,” Denny remarked, as he reappeared 
in the standing-room with the sloop’s horn 
and laid it on the seat near the helm. 

“They don’t fail to appreciate the fact 
that they are lying full in the channel and 
that their lights, as you can see, are not 
visible above half a cable’s length from their 
bows,” said I irritatedly, for I thought 
Denny was guilty of gross carelessness in 
lashing the helm and leaving the standing- 
room to call me, when a thump on the trunk- 
cabin would have served as well. 

But reproof, unless dagger pointed, sel- 
dom penetrated Denny’s self-complacency. 

“Let ’em watch out and toot for the both 
of us, then,” he said. “We’re standing so 
close together that their yowling will pro- 
tect us as well as them.” 

“I differ from you there,” was my re- 
sponse ; and having possessed myself of the 
horn I blew as loud a blast as I could fetch. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


17 


‘^Say, Captain Tiptop, are you going to 
keep up that fish-monger’s solo during my 
watch below 1” ejaculated my companion. 

am, with proper intervals. I won’t 
disturb you any more than I can help. The 
noise doesn’t seem to have bothered Perry; 
he hasn’t stirred in his bunk. I advise you 
to turn in.” 

‘^I’m going to. Captain Tiptop; and I’m 
going to bury my head under the bed-clothes 
or there’ll be no sleep for me this night.” 

I had a picture of him going through the 
lighted doorway into the cabin, stopping 
both ears with his hands as I sent another 
blast from the horn pealing over the yacht’s 
side. Then he closed the doors and the slide, 
and no doubt went at once to bed. 

In echo of the music I made, came the 
equally harsh notes from the horn on the 
deck of the schooner astern. As I sat at the 
helm with my arm extended along the well- 
nigh useless tiller and my right hand grasp- 
ing the horn, I occasionally turned a glance 
over my shoulder at the shadowy stranger. 

For two hours, or ever since I turned in 
at ten o’clock, this craft had stood in 


18 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


nearly the same relative position to the Ty- 
coon. She was a much larger vessel than the 
sloop, and carried a greater stretch of can- 
vas. She had overhauled us at the time we 
issued from the ship canal which intersects 
the Flats, the famous summer cottage settle- 
ment near the head of the lake. When the 
wind fell, her speed like ours was reduced, 
and though she had drawn nearer she had 
not as yet been able to pass us. I could not 
be certain, but I believed I had seen her 
moored at one of the wharves in front of the 
town we had quitted the day before. 

My interest in the stranger, however, was 
idle; at that moment I had no means of 
knowing what an important part she was 
to play in the series of singular events which 
were to begin that night upon her deck. 
Even while I looked at her my thoughts took 
a turn toward my immediate affairs. Laying 
down the horn for a moment I drew from the 
inside pocket of my coat a folded slip of yel- 
low paper. This I spread out and held in 
the light of the binnacle lamp. The paper 
was a telegram which I had received at Al- 
gonac. It read : 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


19 


^^Must ask you to return at once. Very 
important.’’ 

The message was signed, ‘‘Marcus Al- 
vord.” 

Marcus Alvord was my father’s lawyer in 
Detroit. In my father’s absence the lawyer 
represented him in his business transactions 
which, however, were limited ; for my father 
was a retired lake captain and had with- 
drawn from active mercantile life a dozen 
years before. As, in the absence of my fa- 
ther, the lawyer stood in loco parentis 
(which is the term he himself used), there 
was nothing for me to do but obey his com- 
mand to return to the city. Thus it was that 
the cruise of the Tycoon, which was to have 
extended as far as Mackinaw Island, was ab- 
ruptly brought to the right-about. I had 
shown my fellow cruisers. Perry Benson and 
Dennis Cleary, the telegram, which was all 
the explanation I gave them at the time for 
putting the sloop on the return course. As a 
matter of fact, I understood the telegram no 
better than they, and it had aroused my ap- 
prehensions. There was that in my family 
circumstances and my daily life to prepare 


20 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


me in a measure for something surprising, to 
come of this summons. What is meant by 
this obscure statement will be made clear in 
a short time. 

I was immersed in thoughts of the tele- 
gram when I was startled by the sharp blast 
of a steamer’s whistle. It sounded dead 
ahead and' so close that my heart gave a 
jump. Springing to my feet and straining 
my eyes, I beheld the myriad lights of one 
of the big Mackinaw passenger liners glim- 
mering through the fog and rapidly drawing 
closer. 

A collision seemed inevitable. For the 
space of a breath I lost my head. First I 
shouted ; then bethought myself of the horn, 
snatched it up, and blew an ear-splitting 
blast. I heard a bell ring on board the 
steamer, so close was she. -Then she sheered 
to starboard, almost grazing our port-bow, 
as it seemed. She certainly passed so near 
that I could have thrown a line to her. 

No more than time enough to fetch a 
breath of relief was given me, when I was 
startled anew by a shout and a blast from 
another horn. The schooner ! In an instant 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


21 


I realized what was to happen. The schoon- 
er’s lights had been hidden from the steamer 
by our lofty mainsail. Our lights the steam- 
er’s people had discovered just in time, but 
in sheering off they had taken the direction 
that would carry them into the vessel behind 
the yacht. 

While this thought flashed through my 
mind I heard another shout— then a chorus 
of cries over the port-quarter— and then a 
crash. The steamer had run down the 
schooner ! 


CHAPTER II. 

An Eccentric Gentleman. 

no accidents occur, we can make the 
trip in two weeks and not hurry ourselves in 
the least.’’ 

This remark Perry Benson addressed to 
me while we were perfecting plans for the 
Tycoon’s cruise. That was five days before 
the opening of this story. I did not get a 
chance to explain in the first chapter that the 
story is made up from entries in the Ty- 
coon’s log-book, made at the time the various 
incidents occurred, but such is the fact. To 
ask the reader to turn back at this juncture, 
even for a moment, may be to try his pa- 
tience, but turn back we must if we are to 
have a complete understanding of what fol- 
lowed, indeed grew out of, the collision be- 
tween the Mackinaw liner and the schooner 

on Lake St. Clair. I will be brief. 

22 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


23 


Perry was my nearest neighbor, my most 
intimate friend and my room-mate at the 
military school we attended in the interior of 
the State. I have no brothers nor sisters, 
and my mother had been dead several years. 
My father and I, when we were at home, 
lived, together with two servants, in a place 
on what is called the river road, in the out- 
skirts of Detroit. If it had not been for 
Perry, his father and mother, and sister 
Thyra, who was about my own age, my life 
would have been lonely. My father and I 
were the besf of friends. This may sound 
odd. Would that I might say more; but he, 
it is unhappily necessary for me to mention, 
was never better satisfied with me, appar- 
ently, than when I kept away from him. We 
had reached an understanding quite early in 
my life. I was to do as I liked, within certain 
reasonable limitations, and I was to be my 
own master. Mr. Benson, with no thought 
of hurting anybody's feelings, frequently re- 
marked in the Benson family circle when I 
was present, that my father was an odd 
specimen. There was little in common be- 
tween the two men, and they seldom met. 


24 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Mr. Benson attended to Ms business in the 
city. My father studied and traveled. He 
was away from home, fully half the time. 
Where he went nobody knew but himself, 
unless it were his agent, Mr. Alvord. My 
parent seldom wrote to me, and never to tell 
me where he had been nor where he purposed 
to go next. I supposed he was rich and could 
afford to indulge his eccentricities. The 
time was at hand when I was to suffer a 
shock in this connection. 

The Tycoon’s Mackinaw cruise had been 
planned in outline, while Perry and I were 
at school. On the train, coming home for the 
long summer vacation, we had set the date 
for sailing. No opposition was to be ex- 
pected from my father, though I had duti- 
fully written to tell him of the project. No 
reply had come to the letter, which was noth- 
ing singular; but I was not prepared for 
the news that greeted me when I alighted at 
the door of my home. 

Harvey Brott, the aged man of all work 
about the place, met me at the threshold. He 
never hailed my home-coming with joy, for 
I saw to it while there that he and his wife, 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


25 


the housekeeper, performed the duties for 
which they were lodged, fed and paid. 
This ancient servitor did not come forward 
to take my satchel as usual, and he barely 
made room for me to enter the house. 

‘‘Your room is ready for you,’’ was all he 
had to say, by way of greeting ; and then, in 
answer to a question : “Your father has gone 
away,” he shortly affirmed. 

‘ ‘ Where ? ’ ’ 

“Ask yourself the question. Your father 
never yet told me where he was going when 
he left. There’s a letter for you on the li- 
brary table.” 

The letter contained nothing to explain 
my father’s absence. He expressed the wish 
that any plans I had formed might not suf- 
fer interruption because of his absence. Six 
months had elapsed since my last visit. I 
did not take it kindly that he should have 
fled, as it proved, the very day of my return. 

That afternoon Perry came over. He had 
paid a visit to the shipyard up the river, 
where the sloop was kept when not moored 
to the wharf back of the house. He had 
found everything in readiness for our trip, 


26 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Dennis Cleary having faithfully executed 
the commissions I had given him by mail. 
It was during our talk that Perry voiced 
the opinion that the trip would not consume 
above two weeks. 

‘^We could start this afternoon, if we 
wanted to,’’ Perry added. ‘‘Denny said he 
would be here with the boat by four o’clock. ” 

“It is four o’clock now.” 

We were sitting on the veranda in front 
of the house. We both got up and walked to 
the corner. Through the grove which sur- 
rounds the dwelling, and out on the river, we 
espied the big mainsail of the sloop just com- 
ing into view up the stream. We descended 
the steps and passed around the dwelling, 
turning toward the river shore. 

If we had not been in such a hurry to 
be at the wharf when the sloop made the 
landing, and had delayed a minute longer, 
we would have discovered a horse and buggy 
coming along the curved driveway which 
stretches from the house to the river road. 
We would have noticed, undoubtedly, that 
the driver of the turnout was in a great hur- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


27 


ry, and we would have heard him call out to 
me when he saw us turn down the path that 
conducted through the grove to the wharf. 


CHAPTER III. 

Captain Tiptop Plays Detective. 

At the moment Perry and I reached the 
Tycoon’s dock, as a wharf is always called 
along the Great Lakes, the sloop was round- 
ing to, below the structure, preparatory to 
making the landing. We assisted in making 
the boat fast, after which I shook hands with 
Denny. 

Denny was employed at the ship-yard 
where the Tycoon was built. Indeed, he had 
had a hand in designing the craft. I became 
acquainted with him at the time of ordering 
the yacht, and took a liking to him. He was 
in a position to set the time for his summer 
vacation and had been invited to help man 
the sloop during the trip to the Straits. 

We were in the cabin, again talking over 
our plans when, at sound of a footfall on the 

wharf, I stepped out into the standing-room. 

28 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


29 


On the dock stood Mr. Alvord. He beckoned 
me to come ashore. His face was clouded. 

^^Hugh/’ he said, want to see your fa- 
ther, and I want to see him very badly.’’ 

^‘My father is away from home.” 

^ ‘ So the old fellow up at the house just told 
me. But where is he, if you know ? ’ ’ 

I could only answer that I did not know. I 
was surprised that my father’s confidential 
adviser was not better informed. He spent 
fully half an hour quizzing me along the line 
of probabilities, but there was little help I 
could give him. He was manifestly very 
anxious, but when I intimated, mildly, as be- 
came a youth whose father was a marvel of 
reticence, that I would like to know what the 
fuss was about, he evaded the issue. 

During our talk we had walked back to 
the house, and I had shown him my father’s 
colorless letter. As he was about to re-enter 
his buggy he paused with his foot on the step 
and beckoned me to approach again, at the 
same time casting a look of doubt at Harvey 
Brott, who was lurking about the horse’s 
head with a show of holding the animal in 
check. 


30 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


You are going up the lakes for a cruise,” 
he observed, gnawing his stubby mustache. 
‘‘Do you want to do something for your fa- 
ther and me?” 

I did, of course, and said so. He lowered 
his voice, and added : 

“You have heard of your uncle, your fa- 
ther’s half-brother, Silas Lupton, I pre- 
sume.” 

“Not frequently of late years. He keeps 
a hotel at Algonac, I believe. I have never 
visited his place.” 

“Well, I want you to do so. I want you to 
stop at Algonac with your yacht. Don’t take 
anybody into your confidence there, but find 
out all you can about Silas Lupton. I won’t 
mince words about it. You will find that his 
reputation is bad. What I want to know is 
just what he is about at this time. You know 
that he keeps a hotel. You may learn some- 
thing else. W e ’ll see how sharp you can be. ’ ’ 

“I’ll be as sharp as I can,” I promised, 
unable to help smiling a little. 

I was mystified, but I did not ask useless 
questions. . After he had instructed me to 
write to him from Algonac he was off. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


31 


The Tycoon reached Algonac in due 
course, and came to anchor in the river. 
Denny pulled me ashore in the sloop’s din- 
gey. I registered and had dinner at the Eiv- 
erside Hotel, my doubtful uncle’s hostelry. 
It was not a place of the first class, and the 
meal I had, I thought, was inferior to the 
one I would have had if I had dined on board 
the yacht. Not having seen my father ’s half- 
brother in several years I was not at all cer- 
tain of being able to recognize him. Inquiry 
of the clerk in a casual way elicited the state- 
ment of fact that the proprietor of the place 
was getting ready for a trip and that his son 
was with him. I had forgotten all about my 
cousin. He was, as nearly as I could remem- 
ber, a few months older than myself. 

I am afraid that I was not born to become 
a successful detective. I did not make much 
progress in the business of finding out things 
about the hotel-keeper, though I prosecuted 
my casual inquiries in several directions af- 
ter leaving the place. All that I arrived at 
was a firm conviction that the natives of Al- 
gonac were averse to talking about him. 
They seemed to be afraid of the subject. 


32 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


They manifested no particular disinclina- 
tion to discuss the affairs of anybody else. 
Some of them smiled when I tentatively 
broached the subject on my mind, and others 
looked at me askance. My worthy uncle ap- 
peared to be an object of fear in some quar- 
ters, of dislike in others, and of distrust in 
all. 

It was after having completed my secret 
service investigations and while I stood on 
the wharf signaling for Denny to come 
ashore with the dingey and ferry me back to 
the sloop, that a messenger boy on a bicycle 
brought me the telegram which the reader 
has seen in my possession on board the sloo]3. 
It was in response to the request of Mr. Al- 
vord, as has been related, that the Tycoon 
started to return to Detroit. The history of 
the calm and the fog, together with the cir- 
cumstances involving the collision between 
the Mackinaw liner and the strange schoon- 
er, have been sufficiently dwelt upon. 

The minute I realized what had happened 
to the sailing vessel I cast off the Tycoon’s 
main sheet, allowing the boom to swing free. 
Then I ran forward and tumbled the anchor 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


33 


overboard. Lake St. Clair is shallow, even 
in the ship channel,* and the iron was not 
long in finding a place on the bottom where 
it could bite. As I ran aft again Perry and 
Denny came tumbling up into the standing- 
room, fully clad, having instinctively 
snatched up jackets and tarpaulin hats as 
they sprang from their bunks. We hauled 
in on the painter of the tender and put off 
without exchanging a word. Of all the perils 
of the inland seas, that of collision is the 
most dreaded, as it is the most frequent. My 
associates comprehended exactly what had 
happened, before the crash of the collision 
ceased to resound in their ears. 

The distance from the Tycoon to the scene 
of disaster was not more than a hundred 
fathoms, but the night and the thickening 
fog had blotted out even the steamer’s lights. 
At the moment of pushing off we had to 
judge of the situation of the colliding craft 
by aid of sound alone. The cries of alarm 

*The ship channel through Lake St Clair is an arti- 
ficial deep water-way 800 feet wide and 20 feet deep, ex- 
tending from the mouth of the St. Clair River through 
the famous Flats, or half-submerged lands, to the head 
of the Detroit River. 

3 


34 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


which stirred us to action continued to ring 
in our ears as we approached the spot. I 
had the tiller ropes, and my companions 
made the dingey leap over the smooth water. 
In a moment the schooner loomed up through 
the damp obscurity of the night. I gave the 
word, and the boat’s headway was checked. 
We came to a stand-still at a half-length 
from the schooner’s side. 

The whole fore part of the schooner above 
water was a wreck. Her bowsprit had been 
carried away, and with it her headsails and 
foretopmast which, with the foretopsail, 
hung dangling aloft by the topmast rigging. 
Her starboard bow was stove and the bul- 
wark smashed in. In sheering off to avoid 
the sloop the steamer had struck the schoon- 
er a glancing blow. The impact had forced 
the latter’s head around, and she was now 
drifting broadside to the current. Before 
the steamer’s speed could be slackened the 
big liner had brushed past the schooner, her 
sharp prow cutting off the sailing vessel’s 
horn as a woodman Iojds off a branch with an 
ax. The larger craft had then torn her way 
through the rigging of the smaller. She had 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


35 


now come to a stand-still over beyond the 
schooner, and her people were shouting to 
ascertain the extent of the damage they had 
wrought. We could hear them calling out, 
hailing the deck of the schooner. The 
schooner’s people were making noise enough 
with their lungs, but they were not answer- 
ing the solicitous inquiries from the other 
vessel. 

It was evident that panic ruled on the 
schooner’s deck. There appeared to be no 
immediate danger of the craft’s sinking, 
and I could not understand it. I determined 
to board her, and gave the request to lay the 
dingey alongside. As the request was 
obeyed, a man who had been balancing him- 
self on the schooner’s rail amidships made a 
flying leap, landing in the tender, nearly 
falling upon Dennis Cleary and coming 
within a notch of upsetting the little craft. 

^‘What are you about, you sea-horse?” 
roughly demanded Denny, who was incapa- 
ble of measuring his speech when excited. 

^‘Save me!” gasped the stranger, clutch- 
ing the Tycoon’s crew around the neck and 
spilling his hat overboard. 


36 


CAPTAIN TIPTCP 


Denny pushed him back into the stern 
sheets and went after his hat. 

The stranger was a big and burly man. I 
asked him to sit still and not upset the boat, 
and then fastened upon the rail of the 
schooner and boarded her. 

A scene of wild confusion greeted my gaze. 
From where I stood amidships on the star- 
board side, I had a view of the deck forward 
and aft, though the fog made objects indis- 
tinct. At the stern a man or a boy, I could 
not then tell which, was just turning from 
the head of the companion stair, and in his 
hand he bore a lighted lantern. At the taff- 
rail were four or five men struggling with 
the tackle-falls of a boat which they were 
trying to launcli. They seemed to be making 
bad work of it. Everybody was giving or- 
ders which nobody was obeying, and none of 
them appeared to be in authority. It did 
not look as though they would be able to ac- 
complish their purpose, and I hoped they 
would not, for by this time I could see that 
there was no danger of the vessel sinking. I 
turned my gaze forward. Here appeared a 
heap of wreckage, and two men were claw- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


37 


ing at it with an exhibition of frantic energy 
that plainly told that there was some one 
buried beneath it. Here help seemed to be 
most wanted, and I ran forward to lend a 
hand. 

As I came up they succeeded in dragging 
out from beneath the tangled debris the in- 
animate form of a man, and both the unin- 
jured ones bent over him. I followed suit. 
So intent were the pair on their scrutiny 
that at first they did not notice me. 

Fetch the lantern here, Tony,’’ one of 
them called ; and the person who had 
emerged from the companionway ap- 
proached. 

‘Hs he dead?” I asked, gazing with awe 
upon the recumbent form. 

As I spoke I noticed the other stranger 
start and look intently at me, but it was too 
dark to distinguish anybody’s features. 

“That’s what I want the light for— to find 
out if he’s dead,” said the man who had 
spoken, answering my question. 

He took the lantern from the newcomer, 
a boy, and bent closer over the injured man. 


38 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


We all did likewise, forming a little circle 
of faces in the light. 

I was conscious that the eyes of the man 
beside me who had not yet spoken were fas- 
tened upon my face, rather than upon that 
of his injured associate. At that instant, as 
the light from the lantern illumined my 
countenance, he uttered a half-articulate cry 
of alarm and sprang to his feet. Without 
waiting even to glance at the injured man he 
turned on his heel and virtually ran from the 
spot. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Captain Tiptop Takes Command. 

^^Are these people crazy?” was the impa- 
tient thought that occurred to me when the 
stranger jrnnped up and ran away at the 
mere sight of my countenance. The episode 
made me forget for the moment the wounded 
man on the deck. I saw the timorous 
stranger turn down the companion-stair and 
disappear below decks. 

In the meantime the man who had taken 
the lantern was bending over the prostrate 
figure on the planking. He confined himself 
to looking and muttering, apparently too be- 
wildered to do anything. 

‘‘Go and get us a cupful of water,” I sug- 
gested to the boy who had brought the light. 

He went aft somewhere and returned with 
a tin dipper full, the contents of which I 
dashed in the face of the injured man, 


40 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


whereat he fetched a long breath, like a sigh. 
He showed no marks of a hurt, though there 
was no telling what might be the matter with 
him in regions not visible to the eye. Still, 
I thought there was no danger of his case re- 
sulting fatally so I left the boy standing over 
him and went aft to where the five men were 
still struggling with the tackle-falls of the 
boat. 

Silence had by this time fallen upon the 
schooner’s decks, but the cries of a man on 
the bridge of the Mackinaw liner could still 
be heard in no gentle infiections, demanding 
to know whether we were all dead on board 
the damaged craft. As his anxiety was only 
natural, and as he was entitled to a state- 
ment, I took the liberty of answering him. 

‘‘How are you hurt he had three or four 
times repeated. 

“Bow stove above the water line and head 
rigging carried away,” was the answer I 
gave him. 

I was about to add that we had one man 
hurt, when, glancing back over my shoulder 
I saw the injured stranger rise to a sitting 
posture. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


41 


At sound of my voice the men at the boat 
paused in the act of letting go the tackle- 
falls, and now they were looking at me. 

“What are you fellows going to do I de- 
manded. 

“We’re going to get out the boat— you’ve 
got eyes, ain’t you"?” one of them responded 
surlily. 

“Ahoy, the schooner!” the man on the 
steamer’s bridge called out again. 

‘ ^ On board the steamer, ’ ’ I answered. 

“What craft is that?” 

One of the crew responded: “Schooner 
Sebewa, of Toronto.” 

“Better get out your anchor, if you’ve got 
one. You’re drifting into shoal water,” 
added the voice on the bridge. 

“You hear, don’t you?” I asked of the 
surly man. “You’d better lay forward, 
every man of you.” 

They went, though without any overt dis- 
play of alacrity. I followed, driving them 
before me. 

By this time I was able to infer something 
of the status of affairs on board the schooner, . 
and subsequent developments proved that 


42 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


my deductions were not far amiss. The man 
sitting on the deck who had been hurt was 
the commander of the craft, and the man 
who was now with him was the mate. The 
burly man who had jumped down into the 
Tycoon’s tender and the boy who had 
brought the lantern from below were plainly 
passengers. The skipper had been injured 
in some manner at the moment of the col- 
lision, and rendered unconscious. The mate, 
instead of giving immediate attention to the 
vessel and her crew, had set about succoring 
his superior. The eyes of both officers off 
them, the men had gone about caring for 
their own welfare, as they understood it. 
They did not seem to take kindly to my in- 
terference, and on the whole I could not cen- 
sure them. 

As we passed forward— the crew and my- 
self— I saw that the skipper had managed 
to get up on the fore-hatch, where he was sit- 
ting with the mate’s arm around his shoul- 
ders. The sufferer did not seem to have re- 
gained complete consciousness, even yet. 
Obeying my brisk commands, the crew pulled 
aside the wreckage at the bow and got the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


43 


anchor overboard. I then ordered them to 
try the pumps, located one near each mast. 
Half a dozen strokes with the brake proved 
the truth of my supposition— the schooner 
had not taken a drop of water. 

‘‘She’s as tight as a drum,” said one of 
the men ; and his tone showed that he had re- 
covered from his panic. The others ap- 
peared now to be equally sensible. I might 
have humiliated them by a reminder that if 
the vessel had gone to the bottom she would 
not have gone much farther down than the 
level of her decks ; but of course I held my 
peace. 

During operations at the pumps we heard 
the gong in the engine-room of the Macki- 
naw liner clang out, and in a moment the 
vessel had passed out of sight in the night 
and fog. There was no reason for detaining 
her, unless it were to ascertain whether there 
was a physician on board ; and I thought it 
was the mate’s place to act in such a case. 
Nevertheless, I expected to hear the mate 
give utterance to strong language, as is the 
practise of mariners in such a case. He did 


44 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


start to his feet as though to call out, but the 
skipper interposed. 

‘‘Let her go ; we don’t want any of them to 
board us,” was his speech. 

During this time my companions in the 
dingey were lying alongside. Knowing that 
they would like to be informed as to how 
things were going on the schooner’s deck I 
walked over to the rail to speak with them. 
In the meanwhile the boy whom I had heard 
addressed as Tony had come aft and was en- 
gaged in an animated dialogue with the 
burly man who had boarded the tender. 

“I tell you for the last time, Tony, you’d 
better jump into this boat before the schoon- 
er sinks,” I heard the latter declare. 

“But you won’t, Tony, if you have any 
proper regard for my feelings or for your 
own welfare,” Dennis Cleary interposed. 
“This gentleman may be as wise as the 
weather man, and maybe he knows that the 
schooner is sinking. If he does he’s got a 
corner on all the knowledge that’s going. 
But if he has the wisdom, I have an oar, and 
I’ll smite you with it, Tony, just as sure as 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


45 


you attempt to board us. We Ve got our full 
complement of passengers now.’’ 

‘‘Do you want to see him drown?” de- 
manded the burly man. 

“G’wan! the schooner ain’t sinking, and 
I ain’t going to leave her for nobody,” ex- 
claimed the boy at the rail. 

“Spoken like a hero!” cried the Tycoon’s 
crew. “That’s the way Casabianca talked— 
the boy that stood on the burning deck— and 
they wrote poetry about him.” 

“Oh, g’wan!” repeated the youth ad- 
dressed. 

I broke in upon this interesting dis- 
course to ask my associates to wait a short 
while longer for me. I saw that the skipper 
was making an attempt to gain his feet un- 
aided, and I hastened forward again to help 
him. The mate had left him, and was with 
the crew, gathered in the waist. By the time 
I reached the skipper he had struggled to a 
standing posture. 

“Are you badly hurt, sir?” I asked, giv- 
ing him my arm. 

- “Bibs stove,” was the short response, ac- 
companied by a groan. 


46 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


He pressed his hand against his right side 
and half doubled himself up. I began to 
fear that I had made a mistake in not detain- 
ing the steamer. 

“You ought to have a doctor at once,” I 
said, with energy. ^Hll have my boat pull 
back to the Flats and we’ll have a physician 
here in no time.” 

don’t want any doctor,” he answered 
stubbornly ; and then he fell into a tirade of 
abuse, directed against the vessel that had 
run him down. I concluded that a man who 
could blaspheme with the vigor he mani- 
fested stood in no immediate danger of disso- 
lution. Finally he ceased raving, and for the 
first time raised his head and took a good 
look at me. 

^‘Hold up that light,” he commanded, 
wagging his head at the lantern which the 
mate had left on the deck near by. 

I picked it up. 

‘‘Hold it higher,” he ordered. 

Understanding now what he wanted, I 
raised it to a level with my face. He gazed 
up at me long and earnestly. 


CHAPTER V. 


Personality of Captain Eckert. 

While the skipper of the Sebewa studied 
me I had a good chance to study him. He was 
a thin and undersized man, of middle age 
apparently. His complexion, in a state of 
health, seemed to be of the sallow order. J ust 
now, pain having driven the blood back to his 
heart, he was ghastly-looking. His eyes 
were small and black, and they glistened like 
those of a mink. Taken altogether, he was 
not a prepossessing looking personage. 

^‘Who are you, and Avhere did you come 
from?” he demanded, breaking in upon my 
reflections. ‘‘1 don’t believe I ever saw you 
before.” 

have no recollection of ever having 
seen you before. I am from the sloop-yacht 
you must have noticed to starboard. "When 
the steamer dodged past us and ran you 

47 


48 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


down we came to your assistance— my 
friends and I.’’ 

^‘Tliat was the proper thing to do,” was 
his observation ; but the words were uttered 
in a way that showed he was thinking of 
something besides the service rendered him. 

A sailor with a sailor’s gizzard in him is al- 
ways ready to help a man in trouble,” he 
went on ; and all the time he did not remove 
his eyes from my face. 

“I am not a sailor, but a yachtsman,” I 
said, because I could think of nothing else 
to say. 

‘^Well, it’s all one, as they say in Paris. 
Ever been to Paris?” 

‘‘No, sir, I have never been to Paris.” 

“Better take a trip to Montreal some time, 
then; that’s the next best thing to do.” 

I saw that he was talking to gain time to 
collect his faculties which, in truth, must 
have been considerably disturbed by the rap 
he had received from a big splinter from the 
bulwark rail, which had laid him low. 
While he voiced the last words his gaze 
turned toward his crew. 

“Those fellows were going to desert me 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


49 


when they thought the schooner was going 
down— the hounds ! ’ ’ he declared. ‘ ^ They ’re 
no sailors. Just a gang of Canucks I picked 
up at— well, that I picked up. I’m an 
American; my flag’s the Stars and Stripes, 
and I’m worth a ship-load of Canucks if 
my ribs are stove.” 

‘‘The mate stood by you,” I reminded 
him. “He was doing his best for you when 
I came aboard.” 

“He was leaving the vessel to take care of 
herself— I know what he was doing. He’s 
no better than the rest of them. He’s a 
natural born clod-hopper, and he ought to 
be pitching hay, back on the farm where he 
came from.” 

He paused and groaned, and his hand 
went to his injured side again. 

“Is there anything I can do for you. Cap- 
tain— ?” I began, and paused. 

“My name’s— Eckert,” he said; and again 
he fastened his glistening black eyes on my 
face. 

His manner convinced me that he had 
spoken the truth, though it manifestly was 
his first impulse to lie. I did not remember 

4 


50 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


that I had ever heard the name before. If 
he was fearful of being recognized, he was 
needlessly alarmed. 

‘^Is there anything I can do for you, Cap- 
tain Eckert I repeated, as he did not an- 
swer my question. 

‘^I’m all right; I don’t need any of your 
help,” he declared, almost savagely, another 
and a severer twinge of pain catching him. 

^‘Then I’ll bid you good-night,” and glad 
of the chance to get away, I turned to leave 
him. 

‘^Hold on!” he cried. ^‘You ain’t going 
to desert me, are you*?” 

‘^What do you want me to do?” I asked, a 
little impatiently, for I thought that even 
his injury did not excuse his conduct. 

‘ ^ I want you to see to the schooner. I have 
no license to command you,/ 1 know that ; I 
ask it of you as a favor. I can’t trust that 
mate of mine in an emergency. He was 
shipped to help handle freight and keep his 
mouth shut, along with the rest of his farm- 
er friends there. I want you to stay with me 
till daylight. We’re in the channel yet, ain’t 
we? No? Say, if you’ll just take a hand- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


51 


spike and maul a little ginger into my farm- 
hands, and then see to it that they clear 
away this scrap-heap and repair damages, 
I ’ll be much obliged to you. ’ ’ 

I murmured assent, and left him. Of 
course I did not attempt to maul the crew, 
but I did command them to lay forward. To 
my mild surprise the mate considered him- 
self included’ in the general order, and 
obeyed with the others. Having put them 
to work I went aft to apprise my fellows in 
the sloop ’s tender of what was going on and 
to send them back to the yacht. While car- 
ing for the Sebawa it behooved me to re- 
member that my own boat lay in the path of 
a disaster similar to that which had befallen 
the schooner. 

The boy, Tony, was still in conversation 
at the rail with the burly man in the dingey. 
My companions had seen and heard enough 
to inform them as to the condition of affairs 
oh board the Sebewa, but it was necessary to 
tell them that I could not yet leave the 
schooner. After they had boosted the bulky 
form of the timid passenger over the rail 
they pulled for the Tycoon. 


52 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Paying no attention to Tony and Ms fa- 
ther, I started to return to the forward deck. 
I passed around the open companionway, 
and as I did so glanced down into the lighted 
interior of the cabin. I was just in time to 
see a man— the same stranger I had dis- 
covered bending over Captain Eckert on the 
forward deck— draw back out of sight. He 
evidently had started to return to the deck, 
under the impression that I was leaving the 
vessel. Learning his mistake when he 
caught sight of me at the head- of the stairs, 
he beat a hasty retreat. I heard him go into 
a stateroom and shut the door. I saw noth- 
ing of him but his legs, but it struck me that 
even they had a familiar look. I passed on 
my way, reflecting on the happening. 

Captain Eckert had seated himself on the 
fore-hatch, with his knees dravm up and his 
arms doubled under him as a child does 
when it is in pain. The men at work clear- 
ing up the wreckage were making good 
progress. 

Don’t you think you had better let me 
help you below, sir?” I inquired of the skip- 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


53 


per ; and I told Mm of having dismissed my 
boat for the time being. 

‘‘I guess I had. better turn in,^’ he agreed, 
leave you in charge of the schooner till 
daylight. I guess by that time I’ll be able to 
take hold again.” 

I had my doubts, but I did not say so. 

As we worked our way below he told me, 
in sentences frequently broken by gasps and 
groans, how the collision had caught him 
napping. He had gone below, leaving the 
mate in charge. He had only reached the 
foot of the companion-ladder when the hub- 
bub raised on board the Tycoon to warn off 
the steamer reached his ears. Instantly ap- 
prehending danger, he had run on deck, and 
forward. He reached the bow just in time to 
receive the blow from the flying splinter 
which had laid him prostrate. 

‘^That’s all I remember till I came to and 
found you bending over me,” he concluded. 

We reached the foot of the companion- 
way as he voiced this statement. I glanced 
about the cabin with a curiosity which I 
felt to be justifled. The apartment was 
of ordinary appearance, not well fur- 


54 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


nislied nor overly clean in the eyes of a 
yachtsman. It was nearly square, occupy- 
ing less than a quarter of the vessel’s space 
below decks. A cushioned locker set up 
against the forward bulkhead, was broken in 
two places by doors that opened into the for- 
ward part of the vessel. Two other doors, 
one on either side of the companionway, 
gave each into a stateroom. Captain Eckert 
indicated that the starboard room was his, 
by turning me in that direction. I led him 
into the stuffy little apartment, and assisted 
him to lie down in his berth. 

^‘Who occupies the other stateroom. Cap- 
tain Eckert?” I asked, as I spread a blan- 
ket over him ; for the fog, which had pene- 
trated even into this closed apartment made 
the air damp and chill. 

^‘What do you want to know for?” he de- 
manded, with a recurrence of his savage 
tone and manner. 

‘‘I was merely wondering how you find ac- 
commodation for all your passengers, ’ ’ I an- 
swered mildly. ‘‘The man and the boy on 
deck and the gentleman I saw a minute ago, 
below here, are passengers, I take it. They 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


55 


do not look like members of the schooner ^s 
company.” 

‘‘You ought to know that sailing vessels 
on the Great Lakes don^t carry passengers— 
even if you are nothing but a yachtsman,” 
he retorted. “I don’t mind telling you, 
though, that the man you saw on deck is my 
owner, and the boy with him is his son. As 
for any other man, I don’t know what you’re 
talking about. The other stateroom belongs 
to my mate.” 

“I see,” said I carelessly; and left him. 


CHAPTER VI. 

What a Spy-Glass Revealed, 

The first persons that engaged my atten- 
tion when I regained the quarterdeck were 
the burly man and his son. They were stand- 
ing in the starboard gangway between the 
rail and the trunk-cabin. When I led the 
skipper below, I noticed that they edged 
away from their position near the taffrail, 
as though they wished to avoid me. Having 
no thought but to humor them in their de- 
sire, if they had such a desire, I advanced 
along the port gangway. They were talking 
in a low tone, but ceased speaking as I went 
by with only the width of the trunk-cabin be- 
tween us. As I walked away from them I 
heard my name distinctly uttered by the 
elder of the twain. At first I was puzzled, 
but refiected that the burly man must have 
made inquiry of Perry and Denny while he 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


57 


was with them in the sloop’s dingey. I 
glanced back over my shoulder and saw them 
go down into the cabin the minute the way 
was clear for them to do so. 

The Sebewa’s men, including the mate, 
were all this while working like dock labor- 
ers. The mate, now that he was in easy pos- 
session of his wits, seemed to know what to 
do better than I did, and I rather regretted 
having promised Captain Eckert not to leave 
the schooner before daylight. I qualify the 
statement of regret ; for it was beginning to 
dawn upon me that there were curious 
things about the vessel, and I was not supe- 
rior to a desire to know more about them. 

I had told the men to get the fragment of 
the broken bowsprit on board, and to cut 
away and lower to the deck the depending 
section of the topmast. This request had 
been obeyed, and the snarled rigging had 
been cleared away. The men were gathered 
about their officer. The latter addressed me 
as I came up. 

^^What next?” 

^^Do you want orders or suggestions from 
me?” 


'58 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


^‘Whatever you like/^ affirmed the fellow 
indifferently. 

He was a big, stoop-shouldered chap, to all 
appearances not more than four or five years 
older than myself— which is to say that he 
might have been twenty-one or twenty-two 
years of age. His ‘^get-up’’ called to mind 
Captain Eckert’s characterization of him. 
He was dressed like a farmer— in boots and 
overalls and a hickory shirt. He also wore a 
woolen Scotch cap pulled down till his ears 
stood straight out. He was a lout, but I had 
observed that he was gifted with enormous 
strength of muscle. His companions were 
rough-looking fellows in nondescript attire 
—typical foremast hands of the Lakes. 

Captain Eckert spoke of repairing dam- 
ages, and there is plenty in that line to be 
done,” I said, as it was plain that none of 
the party would make a move till I gave the 
word. couple of you set to work and 
splice the broken bowsprit together. You 
can repair it after a fashion by using cleats.” 
I pointed to two of the men I wished to un- 
dertake this labor. ^‘You may as well rig 
out something to bend your headsails on,” I 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


59 


added, for the benefit of the mate. Let’s 
see if you’ve got a spare stick aboard that 
will take the place of the broken topmast.” 

I turned to the fore-hatch. I wanted to 
learn the contents of the hold. As I laid 
hands on the hasp that held the bar across 
the hatch cover, a foot was thrust out, push- 
ing my arm away. The foot was encased in 
a heavy boot. It belonged to the mate. I 
straightened up and looked at him. 

‘ ‘ Keep out of the hold, ’ ’ said he, in an even 
but determined voice. 

‘‘Excuse me, but I have undertaken to do 
whatever may be necessary to get the Sebewa 
into trim. I am going below to look for a 
spar.” 

“You won’t find a spare stick anywhere 
on board. ’ ’ 

“Have you looked?” I persisted, eyeing 
him as narrowly as the darkness permitted. 

“Never mind; I know all about it. You 
won’t find any spare timber on board of 
her.” 

“This brings up the question I wanted you 
to decide a minute ago. Are you in com- 
mand here just now, or am I?” 


60 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘‘I heard everything Captain Eckert said, 
and I suppose you are ; but the captain didn’t 
tell you to break into the hold.” 

He was so quietly persistent that my sus- 
picions with regard to the schooner’s charac- 
ter were strengthened. I was determined 
not to relinquish my object if I could ac- 
complish it without a fight. 

don’t doubt your word, Mr. Mate,” I 
said easily; ‘‘but being in command I inter- 
pret it as my duty to look after things for 
myself. You may possibly be mistaken, you 
know. As I am particularly anxious to have 
that spar I am going to look for it wherever 
I imagine it may be found.” 

While speaking I made a quick movement 
at the hasp, and succeeded in removing it be- 
fore he could again interpose his foot. But 
now he jumped up on the hatch and planted 
both boots on the cross-bar. Naturally, I 
paused. Still he did not appear ruffled in 
temper, but there was that in his towering 
and bulky height to convey a warning. In 
addition, the other members of the crew be- 
gan to press around, with mutterings. Ob- 
viously, if I persisted I stood in peril of 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


61 


rough handling. I backed down as grace- 
fully as possible. 

‘‘I’ll refer the matter to Captain Eckert,” 
I said, and went aft again. 

My purpose was not to ask permission of 
the skipper to open the hold. I was satis- 
fied that my misgivings with regard to the 
schooner were well founded. I intended to 
inform the skipper that I had repented of 
my promise to remain, and that I was going 
to leave the vessel. At the door of the cap- 
tain’s stateroom I paused with my hand up- 
raised to deal a knock on the panel. Words 
I heard spoken inside the compartment made 
me falter. 

The Sebewa’s declared owner and his son 
were holding a conference with the skipper. 
I had heard all three of their voices when I 
came down the companion stair. As I drew 
up before the stateroom door these words, 
uttered in the voice of Captain Eckert, sa- 
luted my ears : 

“Of course if I had known who he was I 
would not have asked him to take charge of 
the vessel.” 

A hush fell upon the three persons in the 


62 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


room as my hand smote the panel. The skip- 
per ’s voice called, ‘^Come in,’’ but I merely 
opened the door a little way. Captain Eck- 
ert was sitting up in his bunk, seemingly 
having forgotten his injury, so interested 
was he in the colloquy with his associates. 
These latter drew back out of sight behind 
the door. The skipper looked confused when 
he saw me, but regained his composure as I 
spoke : 

‘‘Captain Eckert, there seems to be no 
reason for me to remain with you any longer. 
Your mate is doing very well forward.” 

“You want to go back to your own boat*?” 

“Ido.” 

“All right. I and my owner are both very 
much obliged to you for what you have done. 
I hope we ’ll meet again. ’ ’ 

I hardly believed him, but I replied in 
kind; then closed the door and returned to 
the deck. With the horn, which one of the 
crew had repossessed himself of and was sig- 
naling with, I sounded a blast which my com- 
panions on board the Tycoon would under- 
stand. In twenty minutes more I was on 
board the sloop. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


63 


By this time it did not lack much of day- 
light, or rather the time for daylight ; for the 
fog still covered the water and promised to 
veil the sun from view. But, contrary to ex- 
pectation, a gentle breeze soon sprang up in 
the east and dispelled the mist. We got up 
our anchor, trimmed our sheets, and grad- 
ually drew away from the schooner. We had 
not progressed far when the Sebewa’s peo- 
ple imitated our example, resuming their 
course. 

My companions were naturally curious to 
know what had occurred on board the 
schooner after they left. While we got un- 
der way I told them nearly everything, dwel- 
ling upon the obstinacy of the mate in not 
permitting me to go down into the hold and 
upon the remarks made by the captain. 
They agreed with me that there was some- 
thing queer about the schooner and her com- 
pany. In my talk I carefully refrained from 
mentioning the man I had discovered bend- 
ing over the inanimate form of Captain Eck- 
ert and of whom I had later caught a 
glimpse in the schooner’s cabin. I wanted 


64 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


to think independently about this occur- 
rence. 

My full attention was given to the yacht 
as soon as the recital was completed, for it 
was desirable to make the most of the breeze. 
Not for a moment had I forgotten the urgent 
summons from my father’s agent, nor the 
mystery of my father’s disappearance. 

Perry, as we drew away from the schoon- 
er, went forward into the galley to prepare 
breakfast. He prided himself on his skill as 
a cook and never allowed anybody to inter- 
fere with his prerogatives. Denny, in an in- 
terval between pulls at the sheets, brought 
out the spy-glass from the cabin and gazed 
back at the vessel astern. All at once he 
said: 

thought you told us Captain Eckert 
was badly hurt, and that you left him laid 
up in his berth. There he is, on deck. ” 

I took the glass and had a look for myself. 
It was not the skipper Denny had discov- 
ered. I caught a glimpse of the man as he 
rounded the end of the trunk-cabin, walking 
forward. Denny’s mistake was natural ; for 
I had not described Captain Eckert mi- 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 65 

nutely, nor, as just stated, had I said any- 
thing of the mysterious passenger in the 
cabin. The man I saw was taller than the 
captain, and better dressed. I did not get a 
good look at him till he came out from be- 
hind the screen of the foresail and upon the 
forward deck, where he stood looking upon 
the operations of the men who were working 
at the damaged bowsprit. He gazed off to- 
ward the sloop, seeming not to realize that 
his every feature would be revealed to a 
curious observer in the yacht’s standing- 
room by the aid of a glass. 

I was not altogether unprepared for the 
discovery I now made, but I was none the 
less bewildered. The well-dressed man on 
the Sebewa’s forward deck was my father. 


5 


CHAPTER VII. 

Miss Thyra Benson. 

To say that I was puzzled by the presence 
and the conduct of my father on board the 
schooner would be phrasing it too mildly. 
Above all, what did his persistence in avoid- 
ing me while I was on board the vessel signi- 
fy? As I could make nothing of it I held 
my peace, for there "was no telling what 
hung in the wind. 

You will not expect me to dwell upon each 
episode as I find it recorded in my log-book. 
It will be better to summarize here. We 
reached the wharf at home ; Denny returned 
to his duties at the shipyard till such time 
as he should be informed that the cruise was 
to be again undertaken; Perry went home 
and I, for my part, made haste to visit Mr. 
Alvord at his office in the city. The inter- 
view was not a long one. I was deeply med- 
66 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


67 


itating upon it while I trudged along the 
highway toward home that afternoon, hav- 
ing a good distance to walk after leaving 
the street-car line. Nearing the house, I 
mounted the incline in the roadway, at the 
top of which were the gates opening into the 
grounds. Chancing to look back I saw a 
girl on a bicycle coming up behind me. As 
I looked the machine came to a standstill 
and the girl dismounted, being compelled 
by the stee2:)ness of the way to walk and 
trundle her wheel. 

She was dressed in a cyclist’s costume of 
blue and white— as I remember it, a blue 
skirt and a white waist, with a blue and 
white cap. Not to make a mystery where 
there was none, she was Thyra Benson, Per- 
ry’s sister. I thought a great deal of Perry. 
I did not think less of his sister ; for she was 
jolly and sympathetic— a blonde and rather- 
plump. Perry used to provoke her in some 
of their wit combats by allusions to fat peo- 
ple. She was not fleshy, but she was touchy 
upon the subject, in the abstract. She could 
appreciate a good-natured joke as well as 


68 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the next one, and could be very sensible 
when the occasion demanded it. 

I descended the slope to meet her and 
take the bicycle. I saw by her demeanor 
that Perry had been talking to her of my 
troubles, and I was glad ofdt. We turned 
into the driveway and sought out one of the 
rustic benches under a big elm tree. I stood 
the machine against the trunk of the tree 
and took a place beside her. 

was so sorry to learn that you had to 
come back to the city,” she said. saw you 
leave— I was watching the sloop from one 
of the upstairs windows at home ; and while 
I expect to go to Mackinaw with father and 
mother this summer, I could not help wish- 
ing I were a boy, too. I should enjoy a two- 
weeks’ trip in a yacht. Traveling by steam- 
er now-a-days, father says, is like living in a 
hotel; and that is just why I do not like it.” 

^^We expected to have a fine time, but I 
am afraid I shall not make any more trips 
in the Tycoon,” I said. 

understand— that is, I understand 
something about it, but not all. If it is not 
a private matter I would be glad to have 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


69 


you tell me. Of course I do not expect to be 
able to advise you; but if, in your father’s 
absence, you care to talk to my father, I am 
sure he will be interested.,” 

‘‘I am afraid the matter will not interest 
you a great deal, Thyra. It is about a mort- 
gage.” 

She looked puzzled, naturally ; and I 
made haste to add; 

‘‘I have just been told by my father’s 
lawyer that we stand in danger of losing our 
home, my father and I. This place, Mr. Al- 
vord has discovered, is covered by a mort- 
gage given by mother to secure a note for 
a large amount which is held by my father’s 
half-brother, Silas Lupton.” 

did not know that you had any rela- 
tive besides your father. I never heard you 
speak of Silas Lupton before.” 

“1 had almost forgotten his existence. 
Father seldom alluded to him— never at all 
of late years. Mr. Lupton keeps a hotel at 
Algonac. I always inferred that he and 
father were not on good terms. You can 
judge of my surprise when I learned of the 


70 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


mortgage, and especially in whose favor it 
was drawn. 

‘‘Your uncle is about to foreclose the 
mortgage— is that the trouble? You see 
that I know what the possible effect of giv- 
ing a mortgage is.” 

“It is possibly not quite so bad as I have 
led you to think. The mortgage does not 
fall due for two months.” 

“Then you will be able to raise the money 
to meet it, even if you cannot arrange with 
your uncle. Or are you afraid that your 
father Vvdll not return in time and that you 
will be unable to find him?” and at this 
thought she looked really troubled. 

“It probably would not be difficult to find 
my father,” I returned, thinking of the pas- 
senger on board the Sebewa. “It is for a 
very large sum, however, and there is a good 
deal of unpaid interest to meet. The out- 
look is gloomy enough to make Mr. Alvord 
glum, and I do not feel a bit more cheerful, 
as a matter of course.” 

She was silent for some time. She was 
too sensible to attempt words of comfort 
that might be based on nothing more sub- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


71 


stantial than idle sympathy. I could see 
that she was not wholly satisfied with my 
statement of the case. 

^^It is odd that your father never should 
have told you of this,’’ she observed, at 
length. 

‘‘Not so strange as that he never should 
have told even his lawyer,” I reminded her. 
“You know, my father never did take me 
into his confidence.” 

“Then, as Perry said, you do not know 
where your father is?” 

I was silent, leading her to believe that 
she had understood aright. This was not 
exactly straightforward dealing ; for the 
implied answer was true only in letter, not 
in spirit. 

“Perhaps, after all, he has a plan, and 
you and Mr. Alvord are worrying needless- 
ly,” she went on. 

I could only reply that I hoped so, but I 
felt that there was better reason to doubt 
than believe it. 

“If your father kept the affair such a 
close secret how did the lawyer learn of it?” 
was Thyra’s next question. 


72 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘‘The day before Perry and Dennis Cleary 
and I started for Mackinaw he received a 
letter from Silas Lupton telling him about 
it. Yesterday he received another letter in 
which Mr. Lupton says he intends to take 
immediate possession.” . 

“Before the mortgage falls due? I do not 
know a great deal about business matters, 
Hugh, but I never heard of such a thing as 
that.” 

“He has my father’s permission to do so. 
He enclosed a written statement to that ef- 
fect in his last letter. The permit was signed 
by father. It was to tell me of this that Mr. 
Alvord called me back to the city. I exam- 
ined the permit sent by Mr. Lupton, and 
there can be no doubt that it is genuine.” 

For an interval Thyra was again silent. 
You will have noticed that, in spite of the 
intelligence and appreciation she revealed, 
I was not led to tell her all I knew. I had 
not told even Mr. Alvord of my father’s 
presence on board the strange schooner at 
the time of the collision. The reason was 
based on the written permit from my father 
which Silas Lupton had enclosed with his 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


73 


letter. The wording of it was such that I 
felt he was perfectly easy in mind as 
to what the outcome of his trouble would be, 
and I believed that there was to be dis- 
cerned, between the lines, a desire on his 
part to have his actions in the premises not 
too closely scrutinized. 

‘‘You have not mentioned,’^ said Thyra, 
breaking the silence, “whether Mr. Lupton 
has stated when he is coming. When do 
you expect him?’’ 

Before I could answer, the sound of 
horses’ hoofs on the plank bridge spanning 
the gutter where our driveway joined the 
high road was borne to our ears. The next 
moment a hack came tearing along the 
driveway and passed the spot where we 
stood, having risen at the sound. So rapid- 
ly did the vehicle go by that we merely 
caught a glimpse of the driver, with two 
trunks beside him on the foot-board. 

There was no need for further remark. I 
accompanied Thyra to the gate. 

“Perry has frequently spoken of invit- 
ing you to come to our house to stay,” she 
remarked significantly, while I held the 


74 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


wheel for her to mount. ‘‘We have often 
remarked that it must be lonesome for you 
here when your father is away.’’ 

I thanked her with a smile, and she 
darted down the slope. As she sped around 
the corner she looked back with a smile and 
an expression which I felt was intended for 
one of encouragement. 

I walked up to the house. The hack was 
turning away when I reached the steps. On 
the veranda were the two trunks, and in the 
library I heard voices. I stepped to the open 
door. 

It is my endeavor to tell a straightfor- 
ward story of some rather singular happen- 
ings. With due regard for the natural de- 
velopment of events, it is no part of my pur- 
pose to deal in surprises. I was not alto- 
gether unprepared, and I do not believe the 
reader will be, for the discovery I now made. 

The newcomers in the library— my uncle 
and his son— were the man and the boy I 
had seen on board the schooner Sebewa— 
the burly man who had shown so much ter- 
ror at the time of the collision, and the boy 
whom the latter had addressed as Tony. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Cousin Tony and Captain Tiptop. 

Silence fell upon the group in the library 
when I presented myself at the door. The 
coterie was composed of Silas Lupton, his 
son, Tony, and my father’s servants, Harvey 
Brott and his wife. As nearly as I could 
make out from the fragment of conversa- 
tion, caught as I approached, the two latter 
were bidding the newcomers welcome, and 
their tones displayed more cordiality than 
those with which they had ever greeted my 
own home-coming. I detected a degree of 
familiarity between the ‘‘guests” and the 
servants which prepared me in a measure for 
developments that were shortly to follow. 

I had presented myself without taking 
thought of how I should act. It appeared 
that my uncle was better prepared. He 
strode forward with outstretched hand to 


76 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


greet me. I affected not to see the hand, and 
he dropped it, with a covert glance at Har- 
vey Brott. 

‘‘Your uncle, Mr. Lupton,’^ said Brott to 
me. 

“Yes; I understand. Mr. Alvord, my fa- 
ther’s lawyer, prepared me for your com- 
ing.” 

“And this is your cousin Tony,” supple- 
mented my uncle, indicating the boy, who 
stood in the background, regarding me with 
a grin on his flabby face, and his hands in his 
pockets. He did not offer to give me his 
palm ; for he could not fail to proflt by his 
father’s experience. 

Probably I looked as inhospitable at that 
moment as a boy can well look. Unless I 
was much mistaken, Harvey Brott and my 
uncle were rather pleased than otherwise at 
my dissatisfaction. 

“Harvey and Mrs. Brott will see to it 
that you are made comfortable,” I said for- 
mally, and went on my way upstairs. 

In my own room I sat down to reflect. Did 
my uncle and his son remember me as the 
yachtsman who had boarded the Sebewa af- 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


77 


ter the collision ? They did ; for my name had 
passed between them. But they had given 
no visible sign of the fact. Their attitude 
was umnistakably one of covert hostility to- 
ward me, and they had arrayed the Brotts 
on their side. I wondered if, when my rel- 
atives announced to Mr. Alvord their inten- 
tion of taking up their abode at my father’s 
house, they had not been informed that I 
was going on a cruise. The fact that I had 
returned, I was satisfied, was displeasing to 
them. Though they had been on the prem- 
ises not more than fifteen minutes, they, to 
my perception, had already imparted a 
frigid effect to the atmosphere. 

What their course of action was to be, I 
was not long in finding out. They made 
themselves at home with a readiness that was 
a marvel and a disgust to me. That evening 
my uncle smoked his after-dinner cigar in 
the library in my father’s easy chair, and 
Tony had every room upstairs save mine de- 
pleted of its pictures and ornaments to adorn 
the apartment he appropriated for himself. 
My only comfort w^as that I was left alone. 
Indeed, so completely was I left alone that 


78 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


there was no mistaking the fact that hence- 
forth I was to be ignored as much as pos- 
sible. 

My cousin, Tony, had proved to be a youth 
of an inquiring turn of mind. I heard him go- 
ing over the house that evening from cellar 
to garret; and, apparently unable to con- 
tain his curiosity till daylight, he extend- 
ed his explorations to include the outdoor 
premises. I heard him pass along the walk 
under my window, and though I w^as trying 
to read I raised my head to listen to his foot- 
steps. He passed around the corner of the 
house and took to the greensward. He was 
evidently heading for the path that led to 
the Tycoon’s wharf. A thought came to me 
that impelled me to lay down my paper, put 
on the cap and jacket I wore in the boat and 
follow him. When I came down on the wharf 
I found him in the yacht ’s standing-room 
working with a bunch of keys at the lock on 
the cabin doors. 

It was not a dark night ; the sky was clear 
and the moon, nearly at the full, was as near 
the zenith as it ever gets. The expression on 
my cousin’s face as he turned toward me 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


79 


when I jumped down beside him was plainly 
visible. He looked neither startled nor put 
out by my appearance. 

^‘What are you trying to do there?’’ I 
sharply demanded, regarding the bunch of 
keys. 

‘‘Nothing! Just looking the boat oveir. 
Open these doors, will you?” 

His tone was one of conmiand rather than 
of request, and naturally I responded that I 
would not. 

“Oh, well, you needn’t get up on your ear 
nor swell out your chest at me,” he respond- 
ed coolly. “I could get in there if I wanted 
to.” 

But he put the bunch of keys back in his 
pocket. 

“What did you want to get in there for?” 
I asked, unable to make up my mind wheth- 
er my cousin was knavish or merely boorish. 

“I told you. I’m just looking around. I’m 
kind of sizin’ things up, if you really want to 
know.” 

There was no mistaking what he meant, 
and the blood surged to my temples. 

“You need not include the Tycoon in your 


80 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


inventory/’ I said as calmly as I could. 
‘‘This boat is my private property, and she is 
not included in the estate.” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” he returned, in the 
tone and manner of the street. “You’re a 
minor, and what’s yours is your father’s. 
Pa says so, anyv^ay. I may own this boat 
myself before long. ’ ’ 

“Your father is mistaken if he thinks I 
haven’t the ownership of this boat secured,” 
I returned, controlling my temper, and won- 
dering how I did it. 

“Are you going out for a sail?” he next 
inquired, noticing my nautical get-up. 

“I am going to take the Tycoon up to the 
ship-yard, where I generally moor her at 
night for safe keeping.” 

“You don’t think I’d steal her, do you?” 

“Certainly not,” was my answer; and of 
course I meant what I said. 

There was no disputing that my agreeable 
cousin was bent on picking a quarrel with 
me. I did not desire to accommodate him 
just then, if I could avoid it. 

“I always leave the sloop at the ship-yard, 
Tony,” I added, “unless I pass the night on 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


81 


board of her. There have been several boats 
rifled by river thieves in this neighborhood 
lately, and I don’t like to leave my boat un- 
guarded.” 

While speaking I went forward, and leap- 
ing to the wharf cast off the fast that held 
the sloop’s head to the pier. 

‘^Why don’t you sleep on board the boat, 
then, instead of taking her to the ship-yard ? 
I bet the bunks in her are as comfortable as 
a bed in a first-class hotel.” 

intend to make a call on a friend of 
mine that lives up that way, and I may stay 
all night with him,” I answered, determined 
to satisfy my cousin, if soft words would do 
it. 

By this time the current had caught the 
sloop’s bow, which was pointed up-stream, 
and was veering her around. I made haste 
to cast off the stern fast also, and I leaped 
aboard. Tony made no movement to go 
ashore. I reached out and caught hold of the 
cap-sill of the wharf, holding the boat in po- 
sition, while I looked back over my shoulder 
at him. 

6 


82 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


^^Why don’t you let her gof” he asked. 
‘‘I’m going with you.” 

“You are not going with me,” I returned 
quietly, but with decision. 

“I’d like to meet your friend,” he added. 
“I’ll want to get acquainted some, seeing 
that I’m going to live here.” 

I let go the wharf and stepped up to him. 

“Ashore with you, lively! I don’t care for 
your company to-night.” 

I was not mistaken in the estimate I had 
formed of him. My tone and manner were 
sufficiently threatening, and he scrambled 
over the combing and leaped to the wharf. 

“That’s all right,” he shouted back; “but 
I’ll be sailing that boat on my own hook 
some day— mind that ! ” And then, as I paid 
no attention to him— “A pretty sailor you 
are, to cast offi from the dock before you get 
any sail up. You must be a regular green- 
horn. ’ ’ 

I had not hoisted sail because the wind 
was ofE shore and very light and the trees at 
the head of the wharf shut off what little 
breeze there was. While the sloop drifted 
I ran up the mainsail and jib. As soon as I 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


83 


got up from the lee of the grove the canvas 
filled. I headed the sloop up the stream and 
a little off shore. All the time during these 
maneuvers, Tony retained his position near 
the head of the wharf and hurled contumely 
at me, but, as in the beginning, I paid no at- 
tention to him. 

The sloop had not made much progress 
against the current, and the wharf was still 
in plain view, when I crossed the course of a 
small boat. It had but one occupant, and he 
ceased rowing as I drew near. He either 
was inordinately afraid of being run down, 
or he did not wish to approach close enough 
for me to see who he was. 

Something in the appearance of the boat- 
man, even with his back turned in my direc- 
tion, impressed me as being familiar. I 
passed him by, and looked back. I saw him 
drift some time longer and then resume his 
oars. He headed for the shore and the shad- 
ow of the trees near the wharf. I also saw 
Tony Lupton come down the river bank to 
meet him ; and though I could not be certain 
at that distance, I believed that Tony shook 


84 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


hands with the stranger when the latter 
stepped ashore. 


CHAPTER IX. 


A Sentinel and a Spy. 

It was nine o’clock by the time I reached 
the ship-yard. I moored the sloop to a stake 
and pulled ashore in the tender. 

The watchman on night duty at the yard 
had seen me coming, and he was on hand to 
haul up the boat when I landed. I exchanged 
a few words with him, and he let me out at 
the gate in the high board fence that skirted 
the ship-yard on all but the water side. The 
watchman seemed desirous of detaining me 
in conversation, but I was in a hurry. It 
was getting late, and I intended to call on 
Perry on my way home. 

There was a light in Perry’s window at 
the side of the house. As I wished to talk 
with my chum privately I adopted the time- 
tried expedient of casting gravel stones up 
against the window panes. In a moment 

85 


86 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Perry came down stairs. We took a seat on 
the edge of the sidewalk, and I told him of 
the day’s events, concluding with the scene 
with Tony just before I left. He remarked 
that the fact that Silas Lupton and his son 
had proved to be the passengers we had seen 
on board the schooner Sebewa was ‘‘singu- 
lar,” but seemed to attach no special im- 
portance to it. 

“I am sorry they are going to make it dis- 
agreeable for you,” he said, referring to my 
relatives; and he urged me to “take up my 
quarters” with him. 

“And leave them a clear field on the prem- 
ises? I have a better plan than that.” 

“You speak as though you suspect your 
uncle and his son of something.” 

“I mean to keep a close eye on them. I am 
going to lead them to believe, though, that 
they have driven me away. I am going to 
take up my quarters on board the Tycoon 
after to-night.” 

“By the way,” said Perry abruptly, 
“speaking of the sloop reminds me. Have 
you heard about Denny? No? I thought 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


87 


maybe you heard it at the ship-yard. Our 
fellow cruiser has disappeared.’’ 

‘‘Disappeared! How long since?” 

“Well, he returned to the yard after leav- 
ing the Tycoon to-day, remained there a few 
minutes and then obtained leave of absence 
for two hours. He failed to show up all the 
rest of the day, and his younger brother was 
over here about an hour ago to learn if I 
knew where he went. The youngster said 
that the last seen of Denny was at the yard, 
where he was talking with a couple of men 
who came up the river in a boat to buy a 
spar for a topmast. The men told somebody 
that they belonged to a schooner down the 
river.” 

Instantly, without exactly perceiving the 
connection, I thought of the Sebewa and 
then of the man in the small boat I had seen 
that night— the man who had landed near the 
Tycoon’s wharf. 

“What sort of looking men were they?” 

“I can’t tell you. All this I had from Den- 
ny’s brother, the little chap who is always 
limping around bare-footed with a sore toe 
—you know him.” 


88 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Perry did not think the disappearance of 
the Tycoon’s ‘‘crew” a serious matter, and 
while I could not help feeling that somehow 
it was significant, I had to drop the subject. 
I took my leave of Perry and started home. 
The next day, I was resolved, I would re- 
move my personal effects and take up my 
abode in the cabin of the sloop. 

From the Benson’s place to my home was 
only a short walk, but I had lost so much 
time earlier in the sloop, battling with the 
light wind and the river current, that it was 
late when ! turned into the grounds. There 
was a light burning in the library, where I 
had last seen my uncle. One of the windows 
was half open, but the curtains were closely 
drawn. I held up my watch in the moonlight 
—almost twelve o’clock. 

“Uncle Silas keeps late hours,” was my 
thought; and I started to move on to the 
house. 

At that juncture occurred a sound so pe- 
culiar that it made me halt again. Listening, 
I heard it once more. Unmistakably, it was 
a snore. There was somebody asleep in the 
shrubbery off to the left. A moment I stood 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


89 


and pondered. It might be a tramp who had 
made his bed on one of the benches under the 
trees, but I thought not. Stepping off the 
graveled walk I made my way in the direc- 
tion of the noise, which continued at rythmic 
intervals. My feet gave out no sound on the 
soft turf, and I did not hesitate to closely ap- 
proach the sleeper. 

He was sitting on the same bench that 
Thyra Benson and I had occupied earlier 
that day. One arm he had thrown over the 
back of the seat, and the other lay across his 
lap. His head was hanging across his breast, 
and his hat had fallen to the ground between 
his feet. There was no need to awaken the 
slumberer in order to identify him. He was 
my interesting cousin, Tony Lupton. 

What Tony was doing there, aside from 
sleeping, I thought I could guess. 

‘‘Asleep at your post,’’ I murmured; and 
then glanced toward the library windows. 

To put my surmise to the proof, I deter- 
mined upon a further investigation. Pass- 
ing the sleeper without awakening him I 
made a detour around the house and reached 
the waterside at the point where, earlier in 


90 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the evening, the man in the row-boat had 
made a landing. As I expected would be the 
case, the boat was still there. I looked it over 
hurriedly, but thoroughly. It was a common- 
place craft, such as the lake and river 
freighters carry, and if I had ever seen it be- 
fore that night, there existed no feature by 
which I could identify it. But I did not spend 
any long time examining the visitor’s boat. It 
was the visitor himself that most interested 
me. I returned to the house. 

I approached the building from the rear, 
avoiding the walk so that my footsteps might 
not be heard. By this time it was fully ap- 
parent, to me, at least, that underhand work 
of some sort was going on. There seemed 
to me to be no good ground for scruples 
against prying on my uncle and his visitor 
in the library, whoever he might prove to 
be. 

As I walked softly toward the front of the 
house I heard somebody go up the steps and 
enter at the front hall door. 

^‘The sentinel has awakened,” was my 
thought. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


91 


Standing at the corner of the building I 
plainly heard Tony’s report. 

‘‘No use to wait out there any longer,” he 
declared in a rebellious voice. “He’s going 
to be away all night, just as I said he would. ’ ’ 

“Are you sure he hasn’t come in the back 
way?” inquired another voice, not that of 
Silas Lupton, and the tones of which I 
thought I recognized. 

“You haven’t been asleep, have you, 
Tony?” inquired the voice of his father. 
‘ ‘ Y our eyes look red. ” 

“Ain’t I got a cold?” demanded the senti- 
nel. “Of course I ain’t been sleeping.” 

“He ain’t in his room, gentlemen,” anoth- 
er voice put in— the voice of Harvey Brott. 

“It’s plain he’s not coming back to- 
night,” said my uncle, “and that leaves us a 
clear course.” 

“Let’s take a look at the place, then, and 
I’ll get back and report to the captain,” 
spoke the fourth member of the party, the 
man of the row-boat, of course. 

There was a general movement within the 
library. It should be needless to say that by 
this time I was considerably excited. What 


92 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


were these interlopers on my father’s prem- 
ises going to look at, and why ? 

I heard Lupton, senior, command Harvey 
Brott to ‘^take up the lamp.” Then the gas 
was turned out and the whole party, mani- 
festly, filed from the room in the wake of the 
man of all work. I attempted to follow the 
light, but it was carried back into the inter- 
ior of the house and faded from my view. 
When, after circling the house again I still 
could not find it, I bethought me of the cellar, 
and the fact that there were no gas jets 
there, which would account for the lamp. 
There were wine cellars at the rear, and hith- 
er I turned. 

Sure enough, streaming through the nar- 
row grated apertures in the foundation walls 
of the house appeared a gleam of light. Ours 
was an old-fashioned house, and had an old- 
fashioned cellar. The windows were so nar- 
row and so close up to the cellar ceiling that 
virtually nothing of the interior could be 
seen through them. It was imperative that I 
ascertain what Silas Lupton and his follow- 
ers were doing. I cast about me for a means 
of obtaining a view, and quickly found one. 


CHAPTER X. 


The Crevice in a Door. 

The cellar had an outside entrance, a stair- 
way covered at the top with a pair of doors 
which could be lifted and laid back. They 
were secured only with a wooden button, and 
in a moment I had one of them open. The 
steep steps with the closed and locked door 
at the foot were disclosed to view in the 
moon-light. Through the chinks at the top 
and bottom of the door streamed light from 
the lamp which Harvey Brott had borne into 
the cellar to light the way of Silas Lupton 
and his associates. 

I tip-toed down the steps, holding on by 
the edge of the door frame to guard against 
a stumble. The sound of voices was borne to 
my ears. When I put my ear to the chink at 
the top of the door I could plainly hear what 
was said. 


93 


94 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘‘Set the light on the box, father,’’ was the 
first speech that reached my ears distinctly ; 
and again I told myself that I had heard that 
voice before and under different circum- 
stances. 

The speech was of course addressed to 
Brott. When I raised my head and put my 
eyes to the crevice, I got a look at the speak- 
er. He stood so that he furnished me only 
a profile view, but my suspicions as to his 
identity were instantly confirmed. He was 
the mate of the Sebewa. He had addressed 
Harvey Brott as “father.” Thus was re- 
vealed to me the probable connecting strand 
between all the members of the conspirators’ 
company— Harvey Brott, his son. Captain 
Eckert and Silas Lupton. 

In obedience to his son’s mandate Brott 
deposited the lamp on an empty drygoods 
box near the foot of the kitchen stairs ; and 
then he took a seat beside Tony, who had de- 
posited his frame on one of the lower steps 
with his elbows on his knees and his head in 
his hands, apparently about to succumb once 
more to slumber. I shifted my point of view 
so as to command the movements of Silas 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


95 


Lupton and the mate. The pair stood in the 
middle of the cellar floor taking a general 
survey. 

The cellar had not been used for years. It 
was littered with empty boxes and barrels, 
broken and wornout furniture and the hun- 
dred-and-one other worthless things which 
accumulate in such a place. 

‘^That there door, Jesse, goes out into the 
back yard,’’ said Harvey Brott to his son; 
and pointed to the portal at the foot of the 
outer stairs. 

J esse Brott and my uncle advanced in my 
direction, and I started to beat a retreat. 
For the first time the possibility of the con- 
spirators making a sortie in my direction 
presented itself. A speech by my father’s 
man-servant reassured me. 

‘^No use to try it; it’s locked tight,” said 
he. ^‘But I can open it when you get ready 
to use it.” 

‘^Does Hugh ever come down here?” my 
uncle next inquired. 

^‘He ain’t been down here in years. No- 
body ever comes down here but me or the old 
woman; and that ain’t often.” 


96 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


can nail up the door at the top of the 
kitchen stairs and put a new lock on this 
other door/’ said Jesse. ^‘The only trouble 
is that we can’t bring the stuff up from the 
river and down those outside stairs without 
leaving tracks. He will be apt to see them.” 

‘H’ll fix all them tracks,” said Harvey 
Brott. 

‘Hf things go as I expect they will,” added 
my uncle, ‘‘Hugh will not he around here to 
bother.” 

“I guess that’ll be all right,” said Jesse 
Brott. “All Captain Eckert wanted me to 
do was to take a look at the place and see if 
it is big enough to hold all the stuff, and 
whether we can get it in here without any of 
the neighbors catching on. I see there ain’t 
anybody living within a quarter of a mile of 
this place, so that’ll be all right, too. The cap- 
tain says he’ll have to leave the boy for you 
to take care of. He must remember seeing 
him on board the Sebewa, so you’ll have to 
expect him to be a little suspicious.” 

“Tony and I’ll take care of him; the cap- 
tain needn’t lose any sleep over that,” was 
Silas Lupton’s assurance. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


97 


I would have liked to learn just how he 
and Tony purposed to ^Hake care” of me, 
though I thought I could guess. 

J esse seemed to be satisfied that the cellar 
would answer the purpose of the plotters, 
whatever that might be. All the talk heard 
so far did not throw much light on this im- 
portant point. Of course this much was 
plain: A large amount of goods” of some 
sort was secretly to be brought up from the 
river to my father’s house. Where these 
goods were to come from was equally plain ; 
from the hold of the schooner Sebewa. 

Having told his father to clear out the cel- 
lar and get it ready to receive the goods. 
Captain Eckert’s man headed the retreat 
from the place. It was necessary to shake 
Tony two or three times before that youth 
could be sufficiently aroused to get up and 
clear the stairway. The last thing I heard 
from the conspirators that night was an ad- 
monition from Jesse Brott to his father and 
to Silas Lupton to work in the cellar only at 
night, and to put black cloth screens over the 
windows. 

'VVliile the plotters went up the inside 


98 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


stairs I lowered the door over the outside 
steps, being careful to leave everything just 
as it had been found. What to do next was 
now the question. If there had been a boat 
available I would have waited in hiding for 
the mate and tried to follow him when he re- 
turned to his vessel. Again I looked at my 
watch— one o’clock. By this time the moon 
had sunk to the level of the tree-tops and the 
landscape was bathed in shadow. 

I started to cross the lawn and gain the 
highway, directing my steps toward the edge 
of the grove so as to avail myself of its shad- 
ow and avoid a possible discovery by the 
mate when he should issue from the house. 
As I came out from the shadow of the build- 
ing I was startled to see the figure of a man 
issue from behind the trunk of one of the 
near-by trees and move swiftly along the 
margin of the grove toward the road. 

‘^Another sentinel,” was my thought. 

But as I looked at the fleeing figure the 
conviction seized me that the fellow was not 
a sentinel, but a spy. The celerity of his 
pace and the fact that he held straight away . 
for the road seemed to prove it. Actuated 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


99 


by an impulse that I did not attempt to an- 
alyze I gave chase. 

With no thought now of being seen from 
the house in the increasing gloom I ran 
across the lawn so as to head off the spy if 
he meant to issue from the grounds and take 
the highroad to the city. That such was his 
intention became plain when he emerged 
from the grove and took a short cut across 
the open, making for the ornamental iron 
fence in front of the house. I caught a fleet- 
ing glimpse of him before he was swallowed 
up in the shadow of the fence. He was tall 
and spare, and wore a long-tailed coat and 
soft hat. 

have you, now, my friend,^’ I thought 
when I saw him pass into the shadow of the 
fence. 

I was between him and the carriage gate, 
which was the nearest exit. 

Reaching the fence I halted to look along 
its length. There was nobody in sight. He 
had not gone over. I had kept my eyes on 
the top line of the pickets, which was dis- 
tinctly visible against the sky. Neverthe- 
less, the fact was that he had vanished. Mys- 
I 0/ C. 


100 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


tified I walked along to the spot where I had 
caught the last glimpse of him. Here was 
found an explanation— the postern. I had 
forgotten about the small gate or door which 
footed a disused path terminating at this 
point. Never within my recollection, how- 
ever, had the postern been opened. It was 
kept locked, and no key that I ever could get 
hold of would unlock it, and I had tried doz- 
ens when I was younger. 

But the spy had a key to the postern ; for 
it was now ajar and the lock was intact, as 
was quickly made manifest by an examina- 
tion with a lighted match. While I was 
doubling on my course the stranger had 
found time to unlock the gate, if he had not 
left it unlocked when he entered. He had 
also had plenty of time to scurry across the 
road and take to the grove on the other side. 
That this was the direction of his flight was 
proved when I Stepped through the postern. 
There was nobody in sight on the highway. 



ALL THIS, DENNY OBSERVED AT A GLANCE. 
(Page 112.) 


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CHAPTER XI. 


Denny^s Adventures. 

The watchman at the ship-yard must have 
been surprised that morning when, about the 
hour of two, he was called to the gate by the 
noise of a vigorous pounding, and opening 
it discovered that it was I, who had returned. 
But he made no remark when I told him that 
I purposed to spend the remainder of the 
night in the cabin of the Tycoon. It was my 
frequent practice to sleep on board the sloop, 
though I was in the habit of retiring at an 
earlier hour than this. 

Recent events, culminating in the episode 
of the vanishing gentleman in the soft hat 
and the long-tailed coat, had so wrought 
upon me that I thought there would be little 
or no sleep for me that night. However, no 
sooner was I in my berth, than slumber over- 
took me. When I awoke the sun was shining 


102 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


brightly through the blinds in the doors of 
the sloop ’s cabin, and while yet drowsy I be- 
came conscious of the presence of someone 
in the cabin with me. It was Dennis Cleary. 
He was seated on the edge of the berth oppo- 
site and grinning at me over the top of the 
center-board trunk. 

‘‘You must have been out on a bender last 
night, Captain Tiptop,’^ said he cheerfully. 
“YouVe been sleeping like Abu-l-Hassan, 
the man in the Arabian Nights.’^ 

I sat up and asked what time it was. 

“Nine o’clock. I’ve been in here two or 
three times before this, and once I even took 
the liberty to poke you in the ribs ; but you 
only turned over and groaned.” 

“How did you get in?” 

“Easily enough; you forgot to lock your 
door when you set sail for dreamland. ’ ’ 

The events of the preceding night and day 
came back to me with force as I swung out of 
the berth and began dressing. 

“Where were you yesterday and last 
night, Denny?” 

Instantly his face lost its jocular expres- 
sion, assuming one of labored earnestness. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


103 


“Thereby hangs a tale, Captain Tiptop, 
longer than the log-line of the Tycoon.’’ 

“I expected it.” 

“While you are having your breakfast I’ll 
finish what I am doing up at the office, and 
then I’ll come down and relate to you a tale 
that will make each individual hair of your 
head stand up like the bristles on a pig/’ 

“I believe you have a sounder knowledge 
of the Arabian Nights than of Shakes- 
peare,” said I; but he was gone. 

I washed down the Tycoon’s deck and 
sponged out the standing-room while the ket- 
tle boiled in the galley. Then I cooked break- 
fast. The sloop’s larder was full, thanks to 
the interrupted cruise, and I made as good a 
meal as though I had procured it at a hotel 
on shore. My troubles did not seem to have 
damaged my appetite, and I ate as heartily 
as I had slept. Barely had I cleared the fold- 
ing board attached to the center-board trunk, 
called by courtesy a table, than Perry made 
his appearance. He had called at the house 
for me, and Harvey Brott had told him to 
look for me at the ship-yard. Of Silas Lup- 
ton, and Tony, Perry had seen nothing ; and 


104 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


.probably my relatives bad slept as soundly 
as myself. Doubtless, too, they reposed in 
the ill-founded assurance that I was ignor- 
ant of their plots. 

While I was engaged in giving Perry an 
inkling of what my adventures had been, as 
a sort of prelude to what Denny would have 
to tell, the Tycoon’s ^‘crew” returned to the 
yacht. As it turned out, Denny’s adventures 
were as notable as mine had been. The best 
thing to do will be to tell the story straight- 
away, without the many digressions our jo- 
vial friend indulged in. 

Denny, it seemed, had returned to the ship- 
yard, and to work, the previous day after the 
Tycoon reached her wharf, and he was told 
that the cruise to Mackinaw might be consid- 
ered indefinitely postponed. He was alone in 
the office when two men came pulling up the 
river in a yawl and landed at the yard. They 
had come to procure a spar for a schooner’s 
topmast, and were directed to Denny, who 
listened to their application. The spokes- 
man for the twain was one whom Denny de- 
scribed as a big, raw-boned fellow in nonde- 
script attire. He told the ship-builder’s ap- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


105 


prentice that he and his companion were 
from a schooner ‘^down river/ ^ The raw- 
boned man was the mate. 

While Denny and the mate went to pick 
out the spar, the m^e’s companion em- 
ployed himself looking over the flotilla of 
yachts and yachts’ tenders moored to the 
stakes off the yard. It struck Denny that the 
fellow was searching for some particular 
craft which he failed to see. He became sure 
of this when the man approached his super- 
ior and remarked in a tone loud enough for 
the apprentice to hear : 

don’t see nothing of no sloop big 
enough to be her.” 

^‘She may be down at the wharf,” replied 
the mate, glancing at Denny. 

^^She was headed this way, anyhow,” in- 
sisted the flrst speaker; ^‘and cap’n said he 
wanted to know if she was here, so’s she 
won’t be in your way to-night.” 

‘^That’ll be all right; I know what he said 
and what’s wanted,” was the short response. 
‘^Go take another look.” 

The sailor went back to the water’s side, 
and the mate hastened after Denny. 


106 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


The curiosity of the boy had been aroused. 
He began to study the visitor. It was not 
long before he became convinced that he had 
seen the fellow before. He tried to quiz the 
stranger about his vessel, but the man head- 
ed him off. 

‘‘How did your topmast come to be carried 
SiWSijV^ persisted Denny. 

“I didn’t say it was carried away. We’re 
going to fit her out new.” 

“Oh; then you want two sticks.” 

“No ; I don’t want two sticks, only a fore- 
topmast.” 

“A funny-looking schooner you’ll have, 
with only one topmast on her,” was Denny’s 
thought. 

The visitor picked out and paid for a spar 
that suited him, and disdaining a workman’s 
proffered assistance, shouldered the heavy 
timber as though it were a fish-pole and 
strolled off to the water’s side with it. With 
their boat’s painter he and his companion 
made a tow-line and affixed it to the larger 
end of the timber. 

“We’ll tow it down,” said the mate, “but 
we want to leave it here for a while first.” 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


107 


In the ship-yard, in front of the door of 
the office, stood a tall flagstaff with the Stars 
and Stripes floating from the peak. The staff 
was fashioned in the likeness of a ship’s 
mast, with top and topmast. Ascent could 
be made to the top by means of cleats nailed 
to the staff. 

Denny watched the yawl containing the 
raw-boned” man and his companion till the 
boat rounded a head of land and was lost to 
view. Then he went into the office and pro- 
cured a pair of binoculars. Armed with the 
glass he climbed the flagstaff. Through the 
binoculars he saw the yawl descend the river 
to a point nearly opposite the wharf at 
which the Tycoon lay. He saw the strangers 
take a good look at the yacht from a dis- 
tance, and then head about to return to the 
yard. 

“I thought that was the sloop you were 
looking for, ’ ’ said Denny to himself ; and he 
backed down the flagstaff. 

Some time after the strangers had de- 
parted with the purchased spar trailing in 
the water astern of their boat, he saw the 
foreman of the yard and left word for his 


108 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


employer that he was going for a pull down 
the river and might be gone two hours. 
When, seated in a shallow skiff, he rowed out 
upon the river, the yawl was a mile distant, 
still headed down the stream. 

Denny was satisfied that the raw-boned 
man and his companion were too far away 
to notice that the occupant of the skiff was 
following them. 


CHAPTER XII. 


In Pursuit of Knowledge. 

Denny afterwards confessed that he had 
not the slightest notion of what he intended 
to accomplish when he set out to follow the 
yawl and the two men who had visited the 
ship-yard. He pulled along after the strang- 
ers for a long distance down the river. 
Though the yawl was a mile in advance, he 
did not venture many times to look back. 
Thus it happened, after following the craft 
for over an hour, that he discovered it 
had disappeared. The shore all along here 
was covered with a tall, marshy growth, and 
was very irregular, bending in and out and 
forming many bights and miniature bays. 
Below, where the yawl had disappeared, lay 
a number of small islands which doubtless 
once had been tips of promontories, but 
which had been cut off by the corroding ef- 


110 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


feet of tlie current. The yawl had passed 
out of sight behind this group. 

The question ^vas whether the yawl would 
pull past this group and continue on down 
the river, or whether it had reached its des- 
tination at some point in the channel be- 
tween the group and the main shore. Denny 
altered his course, heading for the center of 
the river. When he reached a position com- 
manding a view of the shore below the group, 
the yawl was nowhere in sight. As he ex- 
pected, the craft had drawn up somewhere 
in the inlet, and here would be found the 
schooner. Denny headed for the centermost 
island of the group, and there landed. 

The islands numbered seven, the srnallest 
of which was no bigger than a steamer’s 
deck. The one upon whose marshy shore he 
had grounded the skiJ^ embraced half an 
acre of ground. All were covered with a 
growth of reed-grass and willows. It was not 
easy to pick a way through this tangle ; for 
the grass was shoulder-high and the* trees 
stood nearly as close together as those of a 
hedge. The trip across was not accomplished 
without damage to his clothing, but when he 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


111 


parted the herbage on the farther shore he 
was rewarded by the sight of a vessel in the 
inlet. 

The vessel was the Sebewa. There was the 
abbreviated foremast, for one thing, and if 
this were not enough, there was the yawl and 
the extra topmast floating at the stern. 

The channel in which the schooner had 
taken refuge was so narrow that Denny 
could have stood at the water’s brink on the 
island or the main shore and tossed a stick 
over upon her deck. He would not have be- 
lieved that there was water enough in there 
to have floated her. She was anchored, and, 
as he afterwards said, the chain cable was 
drawn as tight as a flddle-string by the cur- 
rent, which tore through the inlet with the 
velocity of a mill-race. It was neither a safe 
nor a comfortable berth, and the spy in the 
herbage was convinced that only a desire for 
an unthoughtof hiding-place could have led 
a skipper in there. As the wind was virtual- 
ly shut off by the forest growth on either 
hand, he must have had to warp his way in 
from below by means of his anchors. Cer- 
tainly, though, the reward was worth the 


112 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


labor if it were complete concealment the 
skipper sought; for there was now nothing 
but the tip of the remaining topmast visible 
above the trees to attract the notice of any 
person on a passing vessel or on shore. No 
vessel would be at all likely to a]3proach the 
land close enough to obtain a view up or 
down the channel. 

All this Denny observed at a glance when 
he parted the boughs of a willow that grew 
close to the water’s edge. He stood for some 
time regarding the schooner, and without 
fear of discovery, as the deck of the vessel 
was deserted. The reason for this came to the 
spy through the evidence of his olfactory or- 
gans. 

Certain savory odors issuing from the ven- 
tilator in the deck over the galley apprised ' 
him that the schooner’s company was at that 
moment at supper. Denny now reflected 
that he had been on the point of going to din- 
ner at the moment the two men from the 
schooner engaged his attention at the ship- 
yard. He had breakfasted at half past flve 
that morning, and the long pull down the 
river had aroused in him a voracious appe- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


113 


tite. He told himself that he would give 
much to be able to share in the supper which 
the schooner’s crew was eating. But though 
he was hungry he had no notion of abandon- 
ing the hunt. He wanted at least to have a 
look at the schooner’s people. In a short 
time the entire company came on deck, the 
mate and the captain from the cabin and the 
men from the forecastle. 

Denny was puzzled when his eyes first fell 
on the skipper. He did not look like the man 
the Tycoon’s ^^crew” had observed on the 
schooner’s deck at the time the latter caught 
a glimpse of him through the yacht’s glass. 
But Denny reflected that he had had only a 
momentary glimpse of the man and doubt- 
less had not correctly observed him. The 
reader knows that the man Denny saw on 
board the Sebewa in the first instance, was 
not Captain Eckert. That this was the skip- 
per there could be no question. He was pale 
and weak-looking, as became, a man who had 
suffered severe injury, and he at once made 
his supremacy manifest. 

Denny had drawn back as soon as the crew 

made its appearance on deck, and he did not 
6 


114 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


venture to part the herbage again, content- 
ing himself with what he could see through 
the branches. But he heard the skipper is- 
sue several orders, the effect of which was to 
set the men at work at repairing the broken 
topmast. One of the hands climbed to the 
masthead and began laboring at the futtock 
shrouds. 

The spy was not pleased with this devel- 
opment. From his perch this sailor com- 
manded a view of the river all around. It 
would now be impossible for the spy to put 
off in his skiff without being seen before 
he could accomplish ten boat-lengths froiu 
the shore. Benny reflected on the condition 
of his appetite, and that mid-summer even- 
ings are long ; and he hoped it would not take 
the Sebewa’s crew a great while to set the 
topmast. But it did. Never for more than a 
few minutes at a time during the remainder 
of that afternoon and evening was the Se- 
bewa’s foretop vacant, and much of the time 
there were two men aloft. They bungled 
their job so often that some of it had to be 
done two or three times over. 

Captain Eckert and his mate sat on the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


115 


edge of the trunk-cabin and looked on, oc- 
casionally issuing an order, the short-tem- 
pered skipper more than occasionally hurl- 
ing epithets at the heads of the laborers. 

The spy on the island was not unaccus- 
tomed to association with rough men, but 
Captain Eckert’s habitual choice of lan- 
guage disgusted him. He lay on his side in a 
little hollow of the ground, with his elbows 
planted, his chin on his hands, and his eyes 
the most of the time fixed aloft, trying to in- 
terest himself in the work going on there. 
Finally, as the sun sank down into the tree- 
tops over on the American shore of the river, 
only a solitary worker, left to slush down the 
new spar, was still perched aloft. Mght 
came on before this labor was completed. 

The time had arrived for the spy to take 
his departure, if he intended to go. He drew 
back from his position near the schooner 
and recrossed the island to his skiff. Here he 
stood for several moments looking out over 
the darkening river; then he muttered to 
himself : 

Every man of them is on deck now, and 
none of them will be likely to go below for 


116 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


an hour or so. It’s going to be dark as a 
pocket in the inlet, there, even after the 
moon rises. I’ll have to be cautious about it, 
but I guess I can afford to take the chance. 
I’ll have something to tell Captain Tiptop 
when I get back that will be worth the risk, 
perhaps.” 

He was resolved to board the schooner. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Ventures Much, Gains Little. 

The idea of boarding the Sebewa had oc- 
curred to Denny while he lay under the wil- 
lows watching the men at work on the top- 
mast. Having matured his plan in advance 
it did not take him long to begin its execu- 
tion. His first procedure was to muffle one 
of the skiff’s oars. This he did by wrapping 
his handkerchief around the loom where it 
would rest in the notch in the boat’s stern 
when he used it for a scull. Next he removed 
his shoes and stockings and rolled his trou- 
sers up to his knees. Then he shoved off in 
the skiff and guided the little craft down 
stream to the end of the island. Here he 
again landed, and started to wade in shallow 
water, close in shore, towing the skiff. 

By this time it was inky dark inside the 
channel where the Sebewa lay. Neverthe- 

117 


118 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


less, the spy kept close to the island shore 
for the sake of the additional concealment 
afforded by the trees, and also because the 
current momentarily threatened to carry 
him off his feet. 

With one hand holding the boat’s painter, 
and with the other propping the oar against 
the prow to keep the head of the craft away 
from the land, he pursued his sidling course 
up stream till he was within a stone’s throw 
of the schooner’s stern. The voices of the 
men on the deck now reached his ears above 
the murmur of the river. The glow of Cap- 
tain Eckert’s cigar shone like a red star 
through the gloom. 

Again to embark, and to scull the skiff 
up under the schooner’s stern was the work 
of a couple of minutes. 

The yawl in which the mate and his man 
had visited the ship-yard had been hauled 
forward when the new spar was taken 
aboard. One of the rudder chains, stretch- 
ing to the quarter as a preventive against 
the rudder going adrift should it become un- 
shipped, afforded a hold for Denny’s skiff. 
He took a single hitch with the boat’s pain- 


OF SLOOP- YACxxT TYCOON 


119 


ter around the chain, conceiving that under 
the schooner’s stern the current could have 
little or no force— a miscalculation that 
came near to costing him dearly. 

The Sehewa’s taffrail was not so high hut 
that by standing on the skiff’s forward 
thwart it was easy for him to draw himself 
up. In less time than it takes to tell it he 
had wriggled over the rail and was lying flat 
on the quarter-deck. He had a fleeting 
glimpse of two flgures seated on the edge of 
the trunk-cabin, forward, the captain and 
the mate ; but they were now concealed from 
him. Crawling to the companionway he de- 
scended the stairs. 

Going down into the Sebewa’s cabin was 
like going down into a cave or a dungeon. 
No light was burning, and the darkness was 
so thick that Denny later declared that he 
could ^ Haste it.” At the foot of the stairs 
he halted to get his bearings. 

Over his head the skylight was wide open, 
and down through the aperture floated the 
voices of the captain and the mate. At that 
moment it was the skipper who was speak- 
ing. He was engaged in a vigorous denun- 


120 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


ciation of the steamer which had caused the 
damage to his vessel and the injury to him- 
self. Denny did not think his talk worth 
listening to. He began exploring the cabin. 

Gradually the pupils of his eyes accom- 
modated themselves to the gloom, and the 
details of the Sebewa’s equipments were re- 
vealed to him. The cabin table which, in dis- 
use, was folded and swung up under the deck 
beams, was now standing in the middle of 
the floor, and chairs were scattered promis- 
cuously about. The bare feet of the spy gave 
(5ut no sound, but he had to exercise caution 
not to collide with the furniture. 

had a photograph in my own mind of 
what would happen if I let one of those 
chairs run into me,’^ he said afterwards. 

Every door leading from the cabin was 
ajar. Casting only a passing glance at the 
doors astern, and widely awake to the 
purpose that had brought him on board, he 
gave his attention to the two doors forward. 
The one on the starboard side was so far 
open that he could sidle through without op- 
ening it farther. As he did so there came to 
his nostrils a combination of odors appri- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


121 


sing him that he was in the wrong com- 
partment. The air was redolent with the 
fragrance of boiled beef and potatoes. This 
was the schooner ^s pantry. 

Denny had not boarded the Sebewa on a 
foraging expedition, but the savory smells 
that bombarded his olfactories awoke a 
clamorous appeal in the yearning void of 
his stomach. A healthy boy who has not 
tasted food for fifteen hours is in no condi- 
tion of body or mind to inhale the odor of 
boiled beef and pass by on the other side of 
the way. 

Denny’s nose was a good one, and spurred 
to its duties by the demands of his appetite, 
it led him straight to a Ibcker where by grop- 
ing he found eatables in plenty. Burdened 
with a load of sliced beef and several cold po- 
tatoes he returned to the cabin. Overhead, 
the skipper and his mate were still engaged 
in pointless discourse, and they had not 
moved from their first position. As a mat- 
ter of precaution, however, the spy ate his 
lunch sitting near the top of the cabin stairs. 
If the men forward made a movement to rise 
he would dart below or go over the stern. 


122 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


The skipper and his men were considerate 
enough not to disturb him. He finished his 
lunch with an expedition that would have 
tried the digestive apparatus of any crea- 
ture but a boy or an ostrich. After devoting 
brief attention to the men on deck, he de- 
scended again into the cabin. 

This time he pushed through the door on 
the port side, forward. It opened into a nar- 
row gangway flanking the after-hold. The 
door ,at the farther end, he quickly ascer- 
tained by trying, was closed and locked. So 
far as he was able to discover, there was no 
other way to enter the hold from the cabin. 
But to force, this door was out of the ques- 
tion. It was secured with a hasp and pad- 
lock; and it would require a punch from a 
battering ram, he told himself, to tear it 
open. 

Grievously disappointed, he set about a 
retreat. He was not to get off without an 
adventure. 

Just as he reached the cabin he heard a 
movement of the men on the forward deck. 
It was accompanied by a tapping sound on 
the trunk-cabin— the mate was knocking the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


123 


ashes out of his pipe. Over the edge of the 
skylight loomed the figure of the skipper, 
who had risen to his feet. As the spy made 
his way across the cabin he heard the latter 
voice this speech : 

^‘You had better go alone, Brott. Take 
the yawl and pull down there and take a look 
at the cellar and see if anything will have to 
be done to accommodate the stuff, and if we 
can get in there without any of the neighbors 
suspecting what is going on. I’d go myself, 
but I can trust to your judgment, I guess. 
I’ll have to. I think I’d better turn in now 
and give these sore ribs of mine a rest. Look 
out for the sloop, if she’s at her dock yet.” 

Then the mate went forward and the 
skipper came aft along the gangway between 
the trunk-cabin and the starboard rail. He 
was startled to hear a splash under the stern. 
He ran to the taff rail and looked over. There 
was nothing to be seen but the swirling wa- 
ter. 

The moon had risen, and shone through 
the treetops on the main land, casting here 
and there a glimmer on the inlet. The cap- 
tain looked down stream, but saw nothing to 


124 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


alarm him. It must have been a big fish or 
a piece of drift-wood caught in the eddy 
from the vessel’s stern, he thought. 

The splash was made by the spy. While 
the voice of the captain sounded in his ears 
that individual had regained the quarter- 
deck. He was in so much of a hurry that he 
did not stop to look when he swung over the 
taffrail, and consequently he was filled with 
a mixture of emotions when his feet, instead 
of touching the skiff, encountered only 
space. In a flash he comprehended how it 
had come about. The skifi’s painter had not 
held, and the skifi had gone careening down 
stream. 

There was no time to reflect. It was light 
enough for the captain to see the spy’s hands 
clutching the top of the rail; and so, when 
the captain started to walk aft, the spy let 
go. 

He was so excited when he went under 
that he forgot to close his mouth. When he 
rose, a hundred feet down-stream, he w^as 
strangling. The velocity of the current was 
something to inspire terror. The thought 
that he was to be carried out upon the open 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


125 


river added to his fright. Blindly he struck 
out, making the mistake of heading for the 
main shore, which was farthest. 

It was a hard battle. He was an indiffer- 
ent swimmer when stripped, and now he 
was clothed and hampered. He felt that the 
fight was going against him. Slowly, but 
beyond a doubt, he made some progress 
across the current, but his strength was di- 
minishing. Far below the schooner his toes 
finally touched bottom. The shore was not 
two yards away. He endeavored to stand, 
but the current carried him off his feet. 

All this time, from the moment he rose to 
the surface, he was conscious that there was 
somebody on the main shore running along 
by the water’s edge, following him down 
stream. 

He had no time to think, but now, as he 
felt himself being drawn back into the rush- 
ing stream, -he uttered a gasping cry for 
help. 

Down the bank and into the water came 
the unknown person, running. A hand was 
extended, and the imperiled youth was 
drawn to a place of safety. Then, to his as- 


126 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


tonishment, the unknown, without waiting 
for a word of thanks to be spoken, turned 
and made his way swiftly up the bank, dis- 
appearing in the woods. 

This was the story Denny told Perry and 
me in the cabin of the Tycoon. At its con- 
clusion he said : 

‘^You bet, if I ever run across the fellow 
that pulled me out of the water. 111 do the 
right thing by him. I thought I was a ‘ done 
for.’ I tried to say something to express 
my feelings, but he vanished like a spook. I 
didn’t even get a good look at him. All I 
could see was that he was a rather slim man, 
and wore a soft felt hat and a long-tailed 
coat.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Cousin Tonyas Sunny Side, 

It took Denny more than two hours to tell 
his story. It was not till he reached the 
climax that anybody else spoke a word. 
Then Perry looked at me with a curious ex- 
pression of countenance, and said : 

slim man in a soft felt hat and a long- 
tailed coat. That must have been the man 
you saw lurking around your house last 
night, Captain Tiptop. He had plenty of 
time to reach there if he set out at once after 
rescuing Denny. ’ ’ 

^‘Undoubtedly it was the same man.” 

This talk awakened Denny’s curiosity, 
and he had to be given an account of my ad- 
ventures. When told of my seeing the man 
with the yawl, land near the Tycoon’s wharf 
he said: 

“Thnt was the fellow Captain Eckert 

127 


128 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


called Brott. He is the mate of the Sebewa, 
all right. He just about had time to reach 
your place, Captain Tiptop, after he left 
the schooner. As for me, I had to walk back. 
I looked for the skiff and found it up against 
a log a little way down stream from the 
place where I landed, and it was so badly 
stove in, it will never be of any more use. 
I came home along the river road, and made 
poor time of it; for I was bare-footed.” 

Denny would have the skiff to pay for. I 
knew that he could ill afford the loss, and I 
mentally determined to make good the dam- 
age when he and I should be alone. I went 
on with my own story, reciting what I had 
seen and heard in the cellar, and finishing 
with an account of the futile pursuit of the 
‘‘man in the long-tailed coat.” Denny gave 
close attention, and at the conclusion de- 
clared he couldn’t make “head nor tail of 
the whole business.” But Perry asked: 

“Have you any idea. Captain Tiptop, who 
the man in the long-tailed coat is?” 

Evidently he harbored, the same suspicion 
that had fastened itself on my mind, and I 
was confident that we were right; but as it 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


129 


was a matter of speculation I preferred not 
to talk about it just then, and I took the lib- 
erty to ignore his query. 

By this time it was long after mid-day, 
and in addition to the fact that the J uly sun 
was pouring a torrent of heat on the roof of 
the Tycoon’s cabin, rendering the interior as 
close as an oven, my friends awoke to the 
fact that it was meal time. They took their 
departure, after I had inquired of Denny 
whether his employer understood that the 
Tycoon’s cruise had been interrupted, and 
not abandoned. Because, I went on to ex- 
plain, it was my purpose to keep an eye on 
the Sebewa and Captain Eckert, and I 
wanted both my friends on board the sloop 
with me, if possible. It appeared there would 
be no difSculty on this score. 

As soon as the boys were gone I cooked 
and ate lunch in the sloop’s galley; then 
made sail and headed down the river. In a 
few minutes I arrived opposite the Tycoon’s 
wharf. As I came about, to work the yacht 
up stream to her moorings, I saw Tony Lup- 
ton strolling down the wood path from the 
house. 

9 


130 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Where have you been all night, Captain 
Tiptop?’’ he inquired as the sloop came 
alongside the end of the pier. 

‘‘How did you know that I had been away 
all night, Cousin Tony?” 

“That’s an easy one, Captain Tiptop. Be- 
cause you went away in the boat about nine 
o’clock, and didn’t come back. Give me some- 
thing harder.” 

“I will! How do you know that I didn’t 
home back after you were abed, and leave 
again before you were up ? ” 

“That’s as easy as the other,” rejoined 
my cousin, with a wide grin. “Because there 
was a friend of yours here early, and old 
man Brott didn’t find you in your room 
when he went to call you. ’ ’ 

“You keep yourself well posted as to my 
movements.” 

This comment I delivered in a reasonably 
pleasant tone; for I had discerned that 
Tony was in a different frame of mind 
than when I left him at the wharf the night 
before. It looked to me as though he had 
come down to the wharf with a stratagem 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


131 


in mind, and I was willing' to give him all the 
encouragement he needed. 

‘‘If you’ll heave your hawsers over here 
I’ll make ’em fast for you,” said Tony. 

I had fastened upon the cap-sill of the 
wharf with the boat-hook, always kept in the 
standing-room, and was making my way for- 
ward while I kept the sloop from falling 
back with the current. I threw over first the 
bow and then the stern line, and he took a 
turn with them around the piles. His deft- 
ness revealed that he had had some practise. 
A boy could not live in a town like Algonac, 
on the St. Clair River and contiguous to the 
lake, without absorbing some boat lore, 
though I did not believe Tony’s knowledge 
of nautical matters was either broad or deep. 

“What are you going to do now. Captain 
Tiptop?” queried he, leaping down into the 
standing-room, where I was engaged in re- 
turning the boat-hook to its place under the 
seat. 

“I am going up to the house after some 
of my personal impedimenta.” 

“ ‘Personal impedimenta?’ What is that. 
Captain Tiptop?” 


132 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘‘I beg your pardon, Cousin Tony. That’s 
a common saying of mine and I used it with- 
out thinking. I mean that I am going up to 
the house after some of my things— clothes 
and books and other personal effects.” 

‘^That’s the first time I ever heard of 
clothes and books and things being called 
imp— what-dy ’e-call- ’em?” asserted Tony, 
eyeing me narrowly from between his faded 
lashes. 

I could not help laughing at his expression 
of ponderous cunning. A scowl mantled his 
fat features, and I thought we were going 
to have another set-to, such as that of the 
night before. But he curbed his resentment, 
with a manifest effort. 

was in hopes you would invite me to 
take a little sail with you,” he said, in what 
probably passed with him as a very amiable 
voice. think I told you last night that I 
would like to see how it goes on board the 
Tycoon, Captain Tiptop.” 

am sorry, but I am afraid I have not 
the time this afternoon. By the way. Cousin 
Tony, that makes five times that you have 
addressed me as Captain Tiptop within the 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


133 


last five minutes. Nobody but my friend, 
Perry Benson, and my other friend, Dennis 
Cleary, ever called me by that name. How 
did you gel hold of itT’ 

Don’t you remember?” he asked, with 
another of his labored grins, ‘‘the other 
night on Lake St. Clair— I mean while you 
were on board the schooner Sebewa after 
the collision with the steamer,— you left two 
friends in the sloop’s boat alongside. I heard 
one of them sing out to you and call you Cap- 
tain Tiptop.” 

I now began to imderstand Tony’s strata- 
gem. 


CHAPTER XV. 


The Plotters Make a Move, 

Tony’s purpose was made plain by bis 
reference to the Sebewa and the accident on 
the lake. Up to this moment nothing had 
been said by either my^ uncle or his son about 
that occurrence. Doubtless they did not 
know just how to deal with the subject. The 
interview they had had with the m^ate of the 
schooner had given them an idea. Upon 
Tony had devolved the duty of opening the 
topic, and I divined that my cousin was to 
make some offhand explanation that was to 
lull my suspicions, if I had any. 

‘‘1 remember very well seeing both you 
and your father on board the. Sebev/a,” I 
observed, willing to give him the chance he 
sought. ‘^As neither of you said anything 
about it when you arrived here, I didn’t 


134 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 135 

know but it was a forbidden topic, so I did 
not mention it.’’ 

''We never thought of it,” Tony declared. 
"Pa didn’t recognize you at first, and he 
never thought of it till I told him I believed 
you were the same fellow that took charge 
of the schooner after the collision. ’ ’ 

"How did you and your father happen to 
be passengers on board the Sebewa, if I may 
ask?” 

I knew this was the question he wanted to 
answer. 

"Well, Captain Eckert is an acquaintance 
of pa’s, and he happened to be at one of the 
docks at Algonac the day pa and I decided to 
come down here. He offered to bring us 
along on board his boat. We thought we 
might as well save the expenses of the trip. 
It came near turning out to be a pretty dear 
trip, after all. Pa says if you hadn’t hap- 
pened along just when you did, we might 
have all been drowned.” 

To conceal u smile, I turned a look out 
over the river. 

"I think your father has too high an opin- 
ion of my service. The schooner was in no 


136 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


danger of sinking. I presume she reached 
port all rights’ 

course she did, Captain Tiptop, or 
else how would the old man and I be here 
this minute?’’ Tony replied, with a repeti- 
tion of his grin. ‘‘The Sebewa reached 
Detroit all right, and she is up there now, 
discharging her cargo.” 

I thought of the schooner anchored in the 
inlet a couple of miles down the river, and 
wanted to smile again. Though Tony did not 
know it, there was another hitch in his story. 
Captain Eckert had told me that his passen- 
gers were the Sebewa ’s owners. The skip- 
per and my uncle should have compared 
notes before Tony was sent to tell his yarn. 

As the emissary of the plotters seemed 
to have no further revelations to make, I 
went about my business of preparing the 
sloop’s cabin to receive the personal effects 
to be brought from the house. This necessi- 
tated the emptying of one of the lockers in 
the cabin and a more compact stowage there. 
Seated on the edge of a berth, my cousin was 
an interested witness of every movement. I 
was willing to allow him to fulfil his duties 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


137 


as a spy, for I was doing all this for effect, 
anyway. 

^‘Yon must be going to bring down a lot 
of stuff, said Tony, noting the extent of 
my preparations. 

‘‘I am ; I am going to remove to the yacht 
everthing moveable at the house that belongs 
tome.” 

‘‘You must be going on a long cruise.” 

“I may not set foot on this wharf again 
in two months,” was my reply, to which I 
added the mental reservation, “and then, 
again, I may.” 

“I’ll help you lug your traps down here, 
if you want me to.” 

There was no reason why I should not 
avail myself of his assistance. With it the 
labor was soon finished. During our several 
trips to the house I caught occasional 
glimpses of my uncle and of Harvey Brott 
and his wife ; but none of them approached 
me, and I was not bothered with questions. 
I now had every reason to believe that they 
secretly regarded my departure with satis- 
faction. 

Later that afternoon, when I cast off from 


138 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the wharf, Tony voiced a desire to help me 
sail the sloop up to the ship-yard where, he 
had been informed, my friends were to come 
on board. I told him without much cere- 
mony that I stood in need of no assistance, 
and left him on the wharf. As the sloop 
moved up the stream I saw him return to 
the house, to make his report to his father, 
no doubt. 

About eight o’clock that evening Perry 
and Denny, in compliance with a message 
sent them, ‘^reported for service,” as Denny 
said. Half-an-hour later, after a council of 
war in the yacht’s cabin, at which our plan 
of action was carefully mapped out, we 
hoisted the sloop’s light, and under all sail 
headed down the river, laying the course 
well over toward the Canadian shore. 

There was a stiff breeze coming out of the 
southeast, and we made good time. We 
passed the group of islands behind the larg- 
est of which, according to Denny’s report, 
lay the Sebewa; and at a safe distance be- 
low we crossed to the American side and put 
out our light. Denny pulled me ashore in the 
tender, and I walked up stream till the hid- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


139 


den schooner came into view in the inlet. In 
the gloom of a willow by the water’s edge I 
took up my watch, with a certain definite 
expectation of what was to occur ; and with- 
in an hour my expectation was realized. 

On the road back from the river there was 
heard the sound of buggy wheels. The vehicle 
turned into the woods at a point exactly op- 
posite the place where the schooner lay at 
anchor. When some one was heard coming 
through the woods toward the river-side I 
took refuge behind a thick clump of wil- 
lows, ih a position from which I could peer 
forth and see the schooner and the main 
shore opposite her anchorage. 

Within a moment the person heard ap- 
proaching appeared at the top of the bank, 
where he stood looking over at the Sebewa. 
It was dark in the inlet, though the moon 
shone through the tree-tops, and in places 
filtered its light down to the ground. A 
stray gleam happened to fall on the precise 
spot where the newcomer issued from the 
woods, and he was incautious enough to re- 
main standing in the full refulgence of it. 

For several moments he seemed to be at a 


140 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


loss to know what to do. The reason of this 
doubt was not far to seek. The vessel showed 
no lights, and seemed to be deserted. Finally 
he lost patience. 

‘‘Hullo, you; are you all dead over 
there*?” he bawled, and the voice was that of 
Tony Lupton. 

“Shut up, you calf, and get back out of 
the light ! ’ ^ commanded an invisible author- 
ity on board the schooner; and this time it 
was Captain Eckert who spoke. 

Tony growled out some retort, but he was 
heedful enough to draw out of the moon’s 
ray. 

Shadowy forms were now seen moving on 
the schooner’s deck, forward. Two men slid 
down into the yawl, which was floating from 
the cathead in the position Denny had de- 
scribed. The boat was pulled to the shore, 
and Tony Lupton embarked. 

But I had seen enough to satisfy me that 
my calculations as to what would be the 
movements of the plotters were correct. 
Wlaat Tony’s message to Captain Eckert 
would be, was a foregone conclusion. 

By the time the yawl with its passenger 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


141 


had returned to the schooner’s side, I had re- 
turned to the place where Denny was wait- 
ing for me with the sloop’s tender. Perry 
was standing off and on in the yacht, close 
inshore. Without loss of time, Denny and I 
clambered aboard, and he made the tender 
fast. 

Perry relinquished the helm, and I headed 
the sloop down stream, diagonally from the 
shore. When we were so far out on the river 
that the island group was reduced to shadow 
I threw the sloop’s head up into the wind, 
and again we waited. 

We did not have to wait a great while. 
With the night-glass I kept a close watch 
on the mouth of the inlet. Soon I was re- 
warded with a glimpse of the vessel, as she 
went drifting by the opening between the 
islands. A few moments later she issued 
from behind the lowest of the group. 

She had every breadth of canvas set. Her 
topsails caught the breeze through the island 
tree-tops, and she moved oiit on the river. 
Having obtained an offing she came up into 
the wind and headed upstream. Over her 


142 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


starboard quarter, but so far out as to be 
barely distinguishable in the night, the 
sloop moved in watchful pursuit. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Captain Tiptop Walks Into . a Trap, 

The Sebewa, under fore and mainsails, 
topsails, jib and staysail, made good pro- 
gress up the river, but the sloop made bet- 
ter ; for though she did not carry as great a 
spread of canvas as the schooner, she was 
built for speed and she sailed better in the 
wind’s eye. Before the two vessels had pro- 
gressed far after leaving the islands I saw 
that we were overhauling the chase. 

^Hf we don’t want to pass her. Captain 
Tiptop, we’ll have to shorten sail,” Denny 
observed. 

My companions were sitting on the lee 
side of the standing-room, taking turns with 
the glass. 

^^We are almost up with her” Perry an- 
nounced, a moment later. can see the men 

moving about on her deck. They are touch- 
143 


144 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


ing up the sheets every little while. They 
are trying to get all the speed they can out 
of her.^’ 

‘‘I have no doubt they are in a hurry,’’ I 
said. ^^They have seized on the opportunity 
when the Tycoon is away from her wharf 
to make a landing. Captain Eckert may send 
a boat up to the ship-yard to look for her.” 

‘^Well, as she won’t be there, they won’t 
be apt to find her,” said Denny. ^^Then 
they’ll probably begin to take a look at the 
river. They’ll see us nosing along in their 
wake as sure as they’ve got eyes to see with.” 

don’t think they can distinguish our 
rig and build at this distance, in the night,” 
said Perry. 

Perry’s belief seemed reasonable, and it 
was on the strength of it that I held the sloop 
to her course. 

But, apprehending that it was time to 
shorten sail. Perry and Denny, without wait- 
ing for the word, went forward and took in 
the jib and topsail. 

^‘If that don’t hold her down enough, we’ll 
take a reef in the mainsail ; but Captain Eck- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


145 


ert’s old hooker ought to be able to draw 
away from us now/’ said Denny. 

The Sebewa did draw away from us. When 
she came up with the Tycoon’s wharf the 
sloop was more than a mile astern. 

In futherance of the prearranged plan, as 
the Sebewa drew near the wharf we stood 
further in toward the Canadian shore again. 
Far above us and across the river could be 
seen the myriad lights of Detroit, with the 
sparser illumination of Windsor on the 
Canadian shore, opposite. Here Perry took 
the helm again, and I took the night-glass. 

The Sebewa was by this time barely distin- 
guishable against the forest growth at the 
rear of my father’s grounds. She was seen 
to come up into the wind in the shadow of 
the trees and a moment later swing around 
with her head to the current. She had an- 
chored. The Tycoon was headed across the 
river once more. 

Behind a bend in the shore, half a mile be- 
low the schooner, the sloop was an- 
chored, the canvas taken in, and we all went 
ashore in the tender. Perry remained to 

watch the boat and the sloop, while Denny, 
10 


146 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


at his own wish, accompanied me up the 
river shore till we reached the high board 
fence which skirted the side of the grounds. 
Here I asked my friend to return. At first 
he did not want to do so. 

think you had better let me stay with 
you, if you are bound to go in amongst 
these fellows,” he urged; but I was firm in 
the conviction that one head was better than 
two on such a mission as was contemplated. 

am not afraid of coming to any harm 
on my father’s premises. These fellows are 
undoubtedly law-breakers— w^e are pretty 
well satisfied by this time what they are up 
to ; but they won’t dare to lay hands on me, 
if they discover me. I don’t intend they 
shall discover me.” 

While I clambered up on the fence by the 
aid of a dead tree limb propped against the 
boarding, Denny accordingly started back 
for the sloop’s tender. 

‘‘Don’t forget to keep a sharp lookout on 
the river,” I called to him from my perch 
on the fence ; “and don’t forget to tell Perry 
to follow the schooner if she leaves before 
I get back. Don’t wait for me in that case.” 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


147 


There was no telling that he heard me, for 
he gave no sign of the fact, hut as I had told 
him the same thing once before, I believed 
he would execute the mission. My mind 
easy on that score, I dropped down on the 
side of the fence nearest the house and be- 
gan to pick my way through the grove. 

Within five minutes after entering the 
grounds I sighted the schooner through the 
trees. She was lying about ten yards above 
the wharf and as close in shore as she could 
come without touching bottom. The reason 
Captain Eckert had not chosen to avail him- 
self of the wharf became apparent as I drew 
closer. 

At the edge of the water, among the trees, 
stood a wagon with a team of horses at- 
tached, and there was a man on the seat. A 
glance at the schooner explained the mis- 
sion this outfit was to accomplish. Two 
boats had been lowered over the vessel’s 
side, and the crew was engaged in trans- 
ferring the cargo. Two men were lifting it 
over the rail and two others, one in each 
boat, received it as fast as it came. The 
cargo appeared to be composed of boxes or 


148 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


small bales, but from where I stood the ex- 
act fact could not be determined— and it was 
this fact that I had set about determining. 

The men on the schooner appeared to be 
in a hurry. They were working in silence, 
apparently, and they handled the cargo with 
a deftness that suggested frequent practise 
in the art of breaking bulk swiftly, noise- 
lessly, and at night without lights. Their 
haste was no matter to be wondered at. The 
schooner’s position was not favorable to un- 
lawful operations. She was exposed to the 
view of vessels passing up or down the river 
on the American side, and the sight of a 
craft breaking cargo at that hour and in 
that position might excite inquiry. 

The first two boat loads were pulled 
ashore by the men who received the cargo 
when it was handed over the side. The man 
with the horses backed the wagon down into 
the water, so that the stuff could be handed 
up to him out of the boats. When he spoke 
to the horses I recognized him as Harvey 
Brott. 

I did not wait for the wagon to be loaded. 
The course the rig would take was no mat- 


OF SXOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


149 


ter for speculation. It would drive down the 
river a couple of lengths, keeping in the shal- 
low water near shore to conceal the wagon 
tracks. A short cut across the open grounds 
would then enable it to reach the graveled 
driveway, over which the house could be ap- 
proached without leaving any permanent 
marks. The use of a garden rake would ob- 
literate the ruts made by the wheels. 

Being as near to the wagon as I could 
well get without discovery, I hit on a plan. 
Making a detour, I crossed the lawn to the 
front of the house. 

Not unmindful of my previous experience 
with the sentinel, I was careful to make a 
thorough reconnaissance before approach- 
ing very close. There seemed to be nobody 
on guard at the front. Indeed, I could not 
think who would be; mayhap Mrs. Brott, 
which was not at all probable, or Silas Lup- 
ton, which was not much more probable. My 
uncle, beyond doubt, was busy at the rear of 
the house. Tony, I remembered, had driven 
down the river to carry his message to Cap- 
tain Eckert and, as the river road was a long 


150 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


and winding one, probably be bad not yet 
returned. 

In my pocket was a key to tbe front hall 
door. Tbougb it was contrary to my prac- 
tise to carry one, tbe idea bad occurred to 
me when my uncle took possession of the 
place that it might be well to have tbe means 
at band to enter or leave tbe bouse at will. 
With this key I now unlocked tbe ball door 
and entered. 

I was careful to close tbe door behind me, 
softly, but I did not lock it. As it was my 
desire not to have it known that I was in tbe 
house, this was a blunder. No skilled detec- 
tive, of whose achievements I have read, 
would have been guilty of such a false step. 
But I am not possessed of tbe instincts of 
a detective, and on tbe whole am just as well 
satisfied, though a little adroitness would 
have saved me a discomforting experience 
on this occasion. 

Having made an entrance into the house 
I tiptoed my way into tbe kitchen. The 
windows here commanded a view of tbe 
back yard and the cellar entrance. Below 
stairs, in tbe cellar, could now be beard 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


151 


someone moving about— my uncle, of 
course. Mrs. Brott, it appeared, either had 
gone to bed so as to be out of the way or had 
left the place. 

Behind the drawn curtains of one of the 
kitchen windows I took my stand. The 
wagon had arrived, and Harvey Brott and 
the schooner’s two men were carrying their 
first load of goods down the cellar steps. 
They had taken the precaution to rein up 
the team without driving onto the soft 
ground. 

From the window, by drawing apart the 
curtains a little, I could plainly see what 
was the nature of the cargo. It was made up 
of boxes about two feet square and a foot 
or more in depth. I hoped the workers 
would say something loud enough to reach 
my ears which would give a clue as to 
the contents of the boxes. They did not 
do this, but a misstep of one of the sea- 
men as he was going down the stairs did the 
business quite effectively. He dropped one 
of the cases, and it fell upon the hard earth 
fioor with a crashing sound, unmistakably 
that of breaking glass. 


152 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


I had seen and heard enough. My only 
thought now was to get out of the house and 
the grounds without discovery. Cautiously 
I tiptoed across the kitchen floor and 
stepped out into the hall. At that instant I 
thought I heard the sound of someone 
breathing. I halted and strained my eyes to 
pierce the darkness. Then before I could 
turn or brace myself for the shock some- 
body ran into me full tilt, sending me flying 
half-way up the corridor, where I fell to the 
floor in a heap. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


A Futile Search. 

Again I ask the reader to suffer an in- 
terruption of this story. Perhaps it is ego- 
tism that leads me to fear such an oc- 
currence may. provoke displeasure. Of 
course, in my own estimation, my personal 
adventures are rather more important than 
those of Perry and Denny ; but while I had 
my rencounter with the person who precip- 
itated himself upon me at the moment I is- 
sued from the kitchen. Perry and Denny 
were having an experience which must be 
related before my own adventure is followed 
to the outcome. 

For cogent reasons I consider it prefer- 
able to let Perry tell the story. Perry is 
with me as I write this history of our ad- 
ventures, and he consents to take the pen 
for a few moments. The reader will there- 

153 


154 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


fore remember that it is Perry who now 
addresses him: 

* * ' * * * 

^ Captain Tiptop asks me to tell what hap- 
pened after he left Dennis Cleary and me 
in charge of the sloop while he went up to 
the house to look after the doings of the Se- 
bewa’s people. 

While well aware that I have not the 
skill in the ‘burning of phrases” that my 
friend, the captain, seems to have devel- 
oped, it is only a plain narrative I am 
called upon to recount, and I will endeavor 
to tell it in a plain fashion. The reader will 
have to overlook the frequent ‘‘I” stick- 
ing out all over my paragraphs. The 
pronoun, however much it may offend by 
frequent repetition, is not to be dispensed 
with. 

Captain Tiptop has told how he took his 
departure in company with Denny, leaving 
me with the yacht’s dingey. They had been 
gone about half-an-hour when Denny re- 
turned. The captain says that going 
through the woods he asked Denny to see to 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


155 


it that a close watch was kept on the Sebewa 
while he was gone. He must have had a pre- 
monition at the last minute that he was to 
get into trouble up at the house ; and it was 
a part of our plan to obtain full and com- 
plete information concerning the schooner. 
By this time Captain Tiptop and I had it 
pretty well settled in our own minds what 
the Sebewa was and what manner of men 
her people were, as also what was the char- 
acter of Hugh’s uncle. Benny, it will have 
to be said, did not seem to appreciate the 
evident facts in the case, and while he was 
eager to help in the accumulation of evi- 
dence against the wrong-doers, he did not 
seem to be able to follow the drift of affairs. 

For this reason, no doubt, he failed to ap- 
preciate the request made of him while he 
and the captain were going through the 
woods. Even when the latter called out to 
him, as they parted company, repeating his 
warning, he was more intent on convincing 
himself that the captain had made a mistake 
in going ahead alone than he was on heeding 
the captain’s orders; and this Denny has 
confessed to me. 


156 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Therefore, when Denny came back to the 
place where we had grounded the dingey, 
he had nothing more to say than to voice 
and repeat his opinion that he should 
have been allowed to accompany the sloop’s 
commander. To all this I paid little atten- 
tion, for I was of the opinion that Captain 
Tiptop knew his own business, and I con- 
ceived that the matter of the Sebewa’s do- 
ings was nobody’s affair if it was not our 
captain’s. 

I had been told to wait for him, and to see 
that the sloop did not drag her anchor in the 
swift current and go ashore on the head of 
land below her anchorage. The iron held 
fast, and there was nothing to do but take 
things easy, which I did by picking out a 
soft spot in a hollow between the roots of a 
big tree up on the bank, and there lolling at 
ease. Denny amused himself by throwing 
stones at the sloop’s pennant, which I con- 
sidered a very childish performance. 

It was a warm night, and there was little 
air stirring under the trees. I suppose, if I 
am to tell the strict truth in this narration, 
I shall have to confess that I fell asleep, or 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


157 


at least dozed under the big elm by the water 
side. At all events, when I was startled by a 
drop of water falling on my nose, and sat 
up, it was to discover that the moon had 
gone down and that it was raining. 

My hat had fallen off, and I had to look 
hard to find it, so dark had it become. There 
can be no doubt that I had fallen asleep, 
but how long I slept I cannot tell you even 
at this writing. My first thought, after find- 
ing my hat, was for the sloop, which I had 
been set to watch. 

Running down to the water’s edge I was 
greatly relieved to see that the Tycoon had 
not moved. The sloop’s tender was also ex- 
actly where it had first been run ashore. My 
immediate fears allayed, a feeling of an- 
noyance took possession of me for having 
been so negligent as to fall asleep on duty. 
I thought Denny might have awakened me. 
This reflection led me to wonder what had 
become of Denny. He was nowhere in sight. 

Perhaps he also has gone to sleep under 
a tree,” was my thought; and I began to 
search and call out. 

I went around every tree in the vicinity. 


158 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


but I failed to find my shipmate. After all, 
he was not likely to remain quiet all the time 
that had elapsed. He had grown tired of 
throwing stones at the sloop’s pennant and 
had found some other equally engrossing oc- 
cupation at a distance. The fact that the 
rain did not cause him to return made it look 
as though he, at least, considered his occu- 
pation of some importance. 

I remembered that the doors of the sloop’s 
cabin had been left ajar, and that the 
transom windows in the trunk-cabin were 
also open. The rain would be sure to beat 
in and wet the carpet and the bedding in the 
berths. My first procedure, without worry- 
ing about Denny, was to push off in the ten- 
der and board the yacht. Having made all 
shipshape there, I pulled back to the shore. 
By this time I had bethought myseli to as- 
certain what time it was, and found that it 
was after one o’clock. If it had not been 
for that drop of rain I might have slept all 
night. . 

The lateness of the hour convinced me 
that something serious had occurred. Cap- 
tain Tiptop had been gone two hours, where- 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


159 


as he had not expected to be absent more 
than an hour at the longest. And then there 
was Denny’s prolonged absence to account 
for. 

As the tender struck the river bank and 
grounded, I was relieved to discover some- 
one coming at a run along the water’s edge 
from up stream; and this person, I soon 
saw, was Denny. My shipmate was puffing 
like a locomotive on an up grade, and evi- 
dently he was very much excited or had been 
running far. When he came up he was so 
winded that at first he could not speak. He 
dropped on the gunwale of the dingey and 
panted for a minute, while I stood in the 
rain waiting for him to begin his story. 
There was no use firing questions at him 
when he could not command the breath to 
talk. 

As was usual with him, and like some 
authors I know of, when he did commence 
he began in the middle of his story and 
worked both ways. 

^^She’s gone!” 

‘‘Who is gone; and where?” 


160 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


“I don’t know where; she was gone when 
I got there!” * 

A light dawned in my brain. I caught my 
shipmate by the shoulder. 

‘^You mean the Sebewa? You have been 
up there; and the schooner has leftT’ 

He nodded. 

‘‘Tumble aboard here, lively!” and I laid 
hold of the dingey’s bow. 

He scrambled back and took his seat in 
the stern sheets. I pushed off and hurriedly 
gathered up the oars. In two minutes we 
were on board and had the canvas up. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


Seven Men In a Boat. 

The Sebewa had finished discharging her 
cargo and sailed away. This much I gath- 
ered from Denny’s panting utterances; and, 
as has been related, I lost no time in getting 
the sloop under way. 

Captain Tiptop had not returned. Under 
any other circumstances I would not have 
taken the liberty of disregarding his orders, 
which, as they had been delivered to me, 
were to remain with the sloop in hiding be- 
hind the point of land till he came back. 
But I knew that it was imperative to keep 
track of the schooner, and I feared that al- 
ready too much time had been lost. 

^^What are we going to do now?” Denny 
wanted to know, when he had the anchor up 
and came aft to trim the sheets. 

am going to follow the schooner, if I 
11 161 


162 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


can come within sight of her.” 

^‘Well, you can’t. She was out of sight 
when I got there.” 

“How did you happen to go up to the 
house, when you were told to stay with me 
and keep watch of the sloop I asked se- 
verely. 

“After you went to sleep under a tree I 
happened to remember that Captain Tip- 
top told me to keep an eye on the Sebewa 
where she lay at anchor. He asked me to 
tell you tb do the same, but I forgot to pass 
the word.” 

I set my teeth. There was no use in up- 
braiding Denny ; he would only wonder 
why I was so severe with him. Besides, I 
had fallen asleep when I should have been 
attentive to my duty. 

“Tell me what you did and what you 
saw,” was what I did say. 

“While you were asleep I happened to 
think of what Captain Tiptop said. I didn’t 
think it was worth while to wake you up, for 
I could watch the schooner well enough 
alone.” 

“There you were mistaken. Captain Tip- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


163 


top didn’t mean that we should keep watch 
from the shore, but from the river. If you 
had told me, one of us would have pulled out 
every few minutes and seen to it that the 
Sebewa didn’t get away while we were nap- 
ping. The captain meant that we should fol- 
low the schooner if she weighed anchor be- 
fore he returned.” 

“I don’t see how I could be expected to 
figure all that out,” declared my compan- 
ion in an injured tone ; ‘‘and I don’t see how 
you figure it out, either.” 

“Never mind that now, but go on with 
your story.” 

“Well, as I said before, when you went 
to sleep — ” 

“Cut that, if you please! You have said 
it three or four times. I know I went to 
sleep.” 

“Well, that’s where my story begins, any- 
how,” persisted Denny. 

I always suspected that Denny was not 
so simple a youth as he sometimes appeared 
to me. He was “getting back” at me in his 
own way for reprimanding him. There was 
nothing to do but to let him shape the course 


164 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


of his narrative to suit himself. 

‘‘When you went to sleep,” he began once 
more, “I thought I’d do what I supposed 
Captain Tiptop told me to do. I left you 
asleep, though I saw it was going to rain, 
and you might get wet. I knew you’d wake 
up before it began to rain very hard. I ran 
up the shore and climbed up on the fence 
near where Captain Tiptop went over. I 
looked for the schooner, but I didn’t see 
her.” 

“I suppose not,” I said, disgusted. “Is 
that all?” 

“I think that’s enough.” 

I thought so, too— in a certain sense. 

“Of course when I saw the schooner was 
gone, I got down off the fence as quickly — ” 

“I should have thought you would have 
remained there till she came back,” I said 
ironically. 

“You needn’t guy me. Perry. I hustled 
back as fast as I could to tell you. You had 
waked up by that time— ” 

“Never mind; I know enough about it 
now.” 

I did not care to hear anything more 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


165 


about that nap, and, besides, the sloop was 
approaching the head of land. When we 
came out from behind the point I had the 
proof that what Denny had reported was 
true. The place where we had last seen the 
schooner knew her no longer. Without 
troubling myself to consult with my com- 
panion I let the sloop fall off and we moved 
down the river. 

All this time it had continued to rain. Big 
drops were driven in our faces by the wind, 
which had moved around into the south and 
was coming quite strongly. 

Captain Tiptop’s night glass lay on the 
seat near the tiller. As soon as we had the 
wharf well astern I searched the river as 
far as I could see ahead and on both beams 
for a glimpse of the schooner. I could not 
see far, for in addition to the fact that the 
moon had set, there was the driving rain to 
make the darkness thicker. 

Denny, when he saw me hold the sloop to 
her course, went into the cabin and got his 
oilskin coat and storm hat. Then he took a 
seat on the weather side of the boat, and 
was gloomily silent. He was disgruntled be- 


166 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


cause of my sharp treatment of him, and 
now I was sorry for it. The fact was pain- 
fully apparent to me that something serious 
had happened— more serious than the dis- 
appearance of the Sebewa; and I wanted 
my shipmate’s counsel and sympathy. 

‘‘You see what I’m trying to do, don’t 
you, Denny?” I asked in a very mild tone. 

“You are trying to find the schooner, I 
suppose. I don’t believe you will find her 
any quicker than you could sop up De- 
troit River with a lady’s handkerchief. You 
couldn’t see her if she was to climb over into 
the standing-room, here, with us.” 

“I only wish I knew whether she went 
up the river.” 

“She didn’t go down, or I’d have seen 
her. It was plenty light enough to see her 
at that time. I don’t know what she should 
want to go back to her anchorage behind the 
islands for, either.” 

No more did I. Having discharged his 
cargo, there would be no need for Captain 
Eckert to return to his hiding-place. I had 
another matter to worry about besides the 
movements of the schooner. This was the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


167 


disappearance, or rather the non-appear- 
ance, of Captain Tiptop. 

A remark from my companion helped me 
to make up my mind to abandon the fruit- 
less chase down the river. 

think we might better be looking for 
Captain Tiptop than chasing around here in 
the wet,’’ said he. “Of course the sloop is 
fast, and she would soon overtake the 
schooner if we knew where the schooner 
was. But from the way it looks from this 
side of the boat, you might keep clear on 
down to Buffalo without seeing her.” 

“We will go back and look for Captain 
Tiptop.” 

So far as I could discern there was noth- 
ing else to be done. As for being able to find 
the captain, however, I gave up that hope 
before allowing it to linger two minutes in 
my mind. To me, the fact was assured that 
Captain Tiptop was not at the house. 

On the return trip we had a strong beam 
wind, and we made good time against the 
current. I took the precaution to have 
Denny set the masthead light and then go 
forward in order to keep a lookout. There 


168 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


was danger that we might be run down, and 
this precaution should have been taken be- 
fore. 

We had the wharf at the house in view 
through the darkness, and I was debating 
with myself whether to make the landing 
there, when Denny all at once sang out for 
me to luff. 

^‘Hard down!’’ he cried; and his tone ap- 
prised me that no time was to be lost. 

I jammed the tiller over, and the sloop’s 
head swung around, spilling the canvas. 
None too soon, for at that instant a boat 
filled with men went drifting by. 

^Wou fellows must be insured, all right; 
you act as though you wanted to be run 
down!” Denny angrily shouted after them. 
‘‘It’s a wonder you wouldn’t sing out.” 

There was no reply, and the boat disap- 
peared in the murk astern. 

“Those fellows must be tongue tied,” 
growled Denny; and he came aft. “Did you 
get a good look at them?” 

I had obtained only a fleeting view. 

“There were six of them at the oars and 
one in the stern-sheets ; and I believe they 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


169 


were all in uniform,’’ added my companion. 

^‘Some yacht’s crew, probably,” I said, 
bringing the sloop into the wind again. 

‘^Not if that’s their vessel,” declared 
Denny ; and he pointed out over the river. 

Following the direction indicated I dimly 
discerned a steamer a little ways off shore. 

‘ ‘ She ’s a side-wheeler, ’ ’ continued my 
shipmate. ^‘Do you hear her paddles?” 

I could hear them, but by this time the 
sloop had passed the wharf, and if we were 
to land it was time to do so. Without troub- 
ling myself about the steamer or the boat 
with six oarsmen, which seemed to have 
passed on its way, I paid out the sheets and 
we ran in toward the wharf. We anchored 
and took in the canvas and then went ashore 
in the dingey. 

There were no lights visible in the house. 
After circling the building we came to the 
conclusion that there was nothing more we 
could do that night. Puzzled and even 
alarmed we started to return to the sloop. 
We had crossed the lawn and were just en- 
tering the grove, through which we would 
have to pass in order to reach the water 


170 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


side, when we were startled by a loud com- 
mand to halt. Stopping and looking around 
we discovered a number of men approach- 
nig at a run from the direction of the wharf. 

‘‘Halt where you are!’^ repeated the fore- 
most individual of this party. 

Denny promptly took to his heels, but I 
stood my ground. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


A Familiar Figure. 

There was an unmistakable tone of men- 
ace in the voice of the leader of the men who 
came running across the lawn to intercept 
Denny and me. 

As has been told, Denny did not wait to 
learn who the strangers were, nor what they 
wanted, but fled without standing on the 
order of his progress. Two bounds carried 
him so far into the grove that he was out of 
sight in the darkness. 

My reason for not running was the con- 
viction which flashed upon me that these 
were not the members of the Sebewa’s com- 
pany, as Denny plainly supposed. At the 
first glance I noticed that in number they 
corresponded to the party in the boat which 
had floated past the sloop while we were 
nearing the Tycoon’s wharf. Further, the 

171 


172 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


manner of their approach was peculiar. As 
they came running, the six men following 
the leader fell into double file. It was sug- 
gestive of military or naval training. 

Observing me to halt while my companion 
ran away, the leader of the party called out 
some order over his shoulder. The two men 
running foremost in the column thereupon 
defiected to the right with the obvious pur- 
pose of putting themselves between the fugi- 
tive and the water’s side. I saw plainly 
enough that Denny was fore-doomed to cap- 
ture. 

Just as this thought settled itself in my 
mind the leader of the squad reached me 
and placed one hand on my shoulder. 

‘‘Consider yourself under arrest,” said 
he. 

He was breathing hard, though whether 
from excitement, or in consequence of his ex- 
ertions, was doubtful. I can truthfully say 
that, if he was excited, I was not. 

“By whose authority do you arrest me?” 

“By the authority of the United States 
Government.” 

The reply was not unexpected. By their 


'OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


173 


uniforms I had identified the speaker and 
his followers as officers and men of the rev- 
enue marine— men from the revenue cutter 
Fessenden, in short. I was not wholly sur- 
prised to meet them there. Perhaps the 
reader is not. 

‘‘You are rather late, sir,’’ I said; “and 
you have captured the wrong person.” 

“I am not so sure of that,” was his reply, 
emphasized with a knowing little laugh 
that was rather exasperating to me. “I 
think you know something of what is going 
on around this place.” 

“Not so much as I wish I did, sir.” 

While he spoke he was leading me back 
across the lawn in the direction of the 
wharf. All this time he kept his grasp on 
my collar, which I considered a manifesta- 
tion of extreme zeal. This was the first time 
I had felt the hand of the law, and though 
I was innocent of any wrong-doing the 
weight of it did not feel comfortable. I took 
a step aside and his arm dropped. 

“You hadn’t better try to get away as 
your friend did,” he continued; but he did 
not offer to lay hands on me again. 


174 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘‘My friend did not know who you were, 
lieutenant, or he would not have run.’’ 

At the wharf was the boat from which the 
cutter’s men had landed. Here the officer 
came to a halt. 

“Mullaney, and you, Geist, go back and 
see if they have caught that other chap,” he 
commanded, addressing two of his men. 

The marines indicated started off. They 
had not far to go, for half-way across the 
lawn they met the other two marines return- 
ing with the prisoner. 

But though these two victors were stout- 
looking fellows they were having all they 
could do to bring the captive along. We 
could hear them remonstrating with him be- 
fore they came into view. Denny was not 
uttering any audible complaint, but he was 
using his heels with effect. He dug them 
into the ground and sat back, for all the 
world in the fashion of a rebellious child 
who refuses to come when called and has 
to be dragged along. The cutter’s men had 
him each by an arm, and they were hauling 
him forward by jerks and jumps. When the 
fellow who had been addressed as Mullaney 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


175 


got behind and pushed, the whole party came 
down on the wharf at a run. Even on the 
wharf Denny did not cease his useless strug- 
gles. He wriggled about in the grasp of his 
captors and dealt them two or three vigor- 
ous kicks in the shins that made the men 
look at their officer imploringly. 

‘Hf you don’t quit that,” declared the 
latter, ‘H’ll put the irons on you.” 

‘Ht’s all right, Denny,” I added. “These 
are revenue men. They will let us go in a 
little while, and they may be able to help us 
out of our trouble.” 

My appeal had some effect, though Denny 
did not submit with good grace. 

I saw the marines look from one to anoth- 
er as I spoke and then at their officer. They 
seemed to understand that a mistake had 
been made ; but the lieutenant was not at all 
impressed, seemingly. He was a young fel- 
low, in appearance not much older than my- 
self, though he must have been in reality my 
senior by four or five years. 

He ordered us down into the boat, and in a 
moment we were moving out on the river. 
In another moment the revenue cutter 


176 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


loomed througli the darkness and rain. 
There was an accommodation ladder hang- 
ing at the port quarter of the steamer, and 
at the head of it, visible over the taffrail, 
appeared two persons. Behind them the 
light from the cabin lamps was strong, and 
we had a momentary view of both, or as 
much of them as was to be seen over the rail. 

One of these men, it was plain from the 
showing of gold lace on his uniform and the 
salute which our lieutenant gave him, was 
the commander of the cutter. The other man 
was in civilian dress. He was tall— head and 
shoulders taller than the Fessenden’s com- 
mander— and slim. It seemed to me that I 
had seen him before ; but as the boat drew 
alongside, he stepped back out of view. 

^^Whom have you there, Mr. Castree?” 
asked the gentleman in gold lace of the offi- 
cer in the boat. 

^^Two young fellows I caught prowling 
about the house up there, sir. Their actions 
were suspicious, and one of them tried to 
elude us by running when I halted them. It 
looks to me as though, if not implicated in 
this business, they might be able to furnish 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


177 


some information. I thought it best to bring 
them off for your inspection.” 

^^You did right. We will let them speak 
for themselves.” 

Speak up, one of you, and tell who you 
are!” the lieutenant commanded in a low 
tone of Denny and me, where we sat in the 
boat’s stern-sheets. 

presume, sir, you are looking for the 
Sebewa’s men,” I said, addressing the Fes- 
senden’s commander. ‘^Mr. Castree made a 
mistake when he arrested us. We are friends 
of Captain Tip— I mean of Hugh Rodman, 
who lives in that house.” 

At this juncture somebody behind the 
captain said something in a voice too low for 
us in the boat to hear what was spoken. 

^^Just a moment,” said the captain; and 
he stepped back out of sight. 

Then followed a brief dialogue in sub- 
dued tones. I was confident that the cap- 
tain’s interlocutor was the man in civilian 
dress. In a moment the captain reappeared 
at the rail. 

am satisfied that this young man tells 
12 


178 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the truth, Mr. Castree,” he said. ‘‘You may 
return them to the shore.’’ 

“But, sir—,” I started to say. 

“Don’t interfere,” interposed the lieu- 
tenant sharply to me. “You heard what he 
said. He has no time to talk to you to-night. 
We’ve got business before us.” 

The Fessenden’s commander had al- 
ready turned away from the rail. I would 
have persisted in spite of the younger offi- 
cer, had not the latter ordered his men to 
“give way.” A few strokes of the oars, and 
they had run the boat up to the Tycoon’s 
wharf again. There was nothing for Denny 
and me to do but disembark. 

“It’s a nice boat you’ve got, and I enjoyed 
the trip in her immensely,” Denny declared 
with fine sarcasm, the minute his foot 
touched the wharf. 

Mr. Castree made no retort, nor did he 
apologize for having “arrested” us. He 
seemed put out, but I did not believe he 
could be any more dissatisfied than I was. I 
wanted to tell the commander of the revenue 
cutter about the disappearance of Captain 
Tiptop. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


179 


While Denny and I were returning to the 
place where we had left the sloop’s dingey, 
we heard the cutter steaming down the 
river. 

‘^Say; it was the same fellow,” began 
Denny in his characteristic fashion, after 
we had gotten the sloop’s anchor up and 
were hoisting sail in order to return to the 
ship-yard. 

‘‘What are you talking about?” 

“Did you notice that man with the cap- 
tain on the cutter’s quarterdeck?” 

“Certainly I did; and I was just thinking 
that I had seen him before.” 

“Well, I got a blink at him out of the tail 
of my eye, and I know I’ve seen him be- 
fore.” 

“Where?” 

“He was the man with the long-tailed coat 
and the soft felt hat that pulled me out of 
the river.” 


CHAPTER XX. 


TJiyra^s Pointed Inquiry, 

It did not appear that we— Denny and I 
—could accomplish anything toward finding 
Captain Tiptop that night. It was now 
well along toward morning, and having no 
clue our search could be but a blind one. In 
^pite of the stirring events of the night, 
moreover, I was beginning to feel the need 
of rest. The rain had not ceased to fall, 
and as I had not taken Denny’s precaution 
to put on a storm coat and hat, I was soak- 
ing wet from top to toe. Even Denny’s dec- 
laration that the man in civilian attire we 
had seen on the deck of the cutter was the 
man of ^Hhe soft felt hat and the long-tailed 
coat” failed to excite^interest in me. 

We sailed the sloop up to the ship-yard 
and moored at the old familiar stake. My 
companion, after being assured that there 

ISO 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


181 


Fas nothing more to be done that night, 
turned in and was soundly sleeping some 
time before I was ready to follow suit. I 
first started the gasoline stove going, and 
having turned the flame low, hung my wa- 
ter-soaked clothes where they would dry 
over night. I was the first to awaken, and 
the hands of the clock up against the trunk- 
cabin were pointing to the hour of eight. 
My shipmate knew what was expected of 
him, and I dressed and left him sleeping. 

There was no need for me to waste time in 
wondering what had become of Captain 
Tiptop, and in striving to unravel the mys- 
teries of the night’s happenings. Affairs 
had reached a pass where council other 
than that of Denny was needed. I was 
satisfied that the captain would approve oJ^ 
the step I was now about to take. My pur- 
pose was to see my father and tell him all 
that I knew with regard to the captain’s 
troubles. 

My father was on the point of leaving for 
his office in the city, at the moment I ap- 
peared, but half-a-dozen words decided him 
to wait and listen. He returned with me to 


182 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the dining-room, and to save time I ate my 
breakfast while I talked. At iirst ne was the 
only auditor ; but my mother and Thyra, my 
sister, soon got scent of what was going on 
and joined us. I gave them a complete ac- 
count of the events that had occurred, so 
far as I knew them, and of the movements 
of the schooner Sebewa. 

My father, at first apparently doubtful 
of the importance of my revelations, grad- 
ually became impressed. When I told of 
Denny’s and my ‘‘arrest” by the revenue 
cutter’s officers he plainly began to under- 
stand the drift of the matter. He made me 
go over a second time the scene between us 
and the commanding officer of the cutter. 
Beyond speeches of this nature to prompt 
me in my story, he had nothing to say 
till I concluded. My mother could not under- 
stand the situation at all, and after I was 
done pressed me for further details. Thyra, 
I noticed, was as deeply impressed as father. 
She went to the library and returned with a 
map showing the Detroit River with both 
the Michigan and Ontario shores. This she 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


183 


continued to study while the rest of us went 
on with our talk. 

The fact that impressed all present, over 
and above everything else, was that Captain 
Tiptop had disappeared. It did not take 
long to convince my father that there was 
no likelihood that the captain had returned 
to the sloop’s anchorage after Denny and 
I sailed away in search of the schooner. 

do not believe any harm has come to 
him,” my father said. While it is perfect- 
ly plain that illegal business of some kind 
is going on, the law-breakers will not be at 
all likely to do Hugh any bodily injury. It 
looks as though he had been discovered spy- 
ing on thena at their work and captured, 
though what the rascals expect to accom- 
plish by holding him prisoner is too deep a 
problem for me.” 

I was not ready to agree with my parent 
that no harm was likely to come to my 
friend. 

^Wou must not forget that the apparent 
ring-leader is Hugh’s uncle— or at least Mr. 
Rodman’s half-brother,” my father pointed 
out, to further reassure me. 


184 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


is a villain, nevertheless.’’ 

‘^Granted! But not a desperate man, at 
all, if appearances go for much. I have seen 
him, not only recently, but I met him fre- 
quently a good many years ago. ’ ’ 

‘‘Then there is no doubt that he is the real 
uncle, and no impostor?” was my question; 
for a vague suspicion had possessed my 
mind. 

“Not in the least. Perry. As I said, I 
knew him before his coming here; and be- 
fore he became a hotelkeeper at Algonac.” 

At this point Thyra looked up from her 
study of the map. 

“Do you know, father, what Mr. Lup- 
ton’s business was in Detroit before he be- 
came a hotelkeeper at Algonac?” she asked. 

“He was a wholesale liquor-dealer,” and 
I observed my father to smile a little, as 
though her question were an apt one. 

As for myself, I could not see the drift 
of it, though I did some time later. 

“And do you recognize this Captain Eck- 
ert from Perry’s description, father?” was 
Thyra ’s next question. 

To this he returned a negative. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


185 


For some time there was silence. My 
father glanced at the clock, and was evi- 
dently thinking of the busine::3 awaiting 
him at the office. But he did not like to go, 
leaving me without some comfort, and I will 
not be at all backward about confessing that 
I needed comfort. 

‘‘What would you advise me to do?^^ I 
asked at last. 

“Nothing precipitate,’’ said he. “Wait 
and watch. Hugh will reappear when you 
least expect it.” 

I was disappointed; and so, I could see, 
was Thyra. She started to speak, but re- 
turned to her contemplation of the map, and 
occasionally she made a note of something 
on a slip of paper. 

“One thing I can assure you of. Perry,” 
my father said as he finally rose to go, 
“there are more competent heads at work 
on this case than yours or mine. You would 
better not interfere. If Hugh does not re- 
turn in a day or so we will look into the mat- 
ter further.” 

With that, it appeared, I would have to 
be satisfied. My father had one more ques- 


186 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


tion to ask before be took his leave. 

‘^No word has been received from Hugh’s 
father, I suppose?” he said, while he stood 
in the doorway. ‘^His lawyer has not heard 
from him?” 

^Hf he has I have not been informed of the ^ 
fact.” 

‘‘And Hugh himself has not said that he 
has any idea where Mr. Rodman is?” 

“I sometimes think he must have, for he 
has said nothing about the matter of late.” 

“Then I repeat my assertion that there 
are wiser heads at work in this matter than 
yours or mine. Perry. It will come out all 
right in the end, and before many days have 
passed, too.” 

I returned to the sloop, no better equipped 
for coping with the situation than when I 
had left it. I did not know just what my 
father meant by “doing nothing precipi- 
tate.” He certainly did not mean that I 
should give up looking for my friend, if any 
reasonable likelihood of finding him offered 
itself. 

As it happened, I had to act on my fath- 
er’s advice and do nothing but wait, and 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


187 


that in spite of myself. Although Denny, 
acting on his own responsibility, spent the 
greater part of the day watching the win- 
dows of the Rodman house, he saw no sign of 
Captain Tiptop. If the captain were a pris- 
oner there, he was kept too close to permit 
of his communicating with the outside 
world. Denny reported that he saw Silas 
Lupton and Tony, and also Harvey Brott 
and his wife about the place, but nobody 
else. It was to be somebody all along un- 
thought of, who was to effect the rescue of 
Captain Tiptop. 

Here my part of the story of Captain Tip- 
top ’s troubles properly ends. With an apol- 
ogy for having taken so much time and 
space to chronicle a series of failures, I 
hand the pen back to the captain himself. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


A Struggle in the Dark, 

The last the reader saw of me was at the 
moment I went flying up the dark passage- 
way in my father’s house and fell in a heap 
on the floor, the motive power that impelled 
me being the unknown person who came 
upon me as I issued from the kitchen, after 
spying on the Sebewa’s men at work at the 
rear of the dwelling. 

The unknown assailant butted me square- 
ly in the small of the back. I found time to 
reflect, even in that moment of surprise, that 
he must have had a pretty hard head. The 
blow smote me with the force of a pile- 
driver. It knocked the “wind” out of me; 
and after striking the floor I lay quite still. 
The assailant followed up his attack by pil- 
ing on top of me. When I felt his hands 
groping for my throat I gathered myself to- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


189 


gether and rolled over, carrying him with 
me. We were now in the position of two 
wrestlers, lying prone side by side and 
locked in a fast embrace. 

Up to this juncture the unknown had not 
uttered a sound above the stertorian breath- 
ing which first apprised me of his presence. 
His breathing now became louder than 
ever ; for, taking my cue from his tactics, I 
buried my fingers in his throat. He attempt- 
ed to cry out. I jammed his head backwards, 
and it struck with a thump against the foot 
of the stairs which conducted to the upper 
regions of the house. So far, in spite of my 
first reverse, I seemed to be getting the best 
of the battle. Taking heart, I bumped my 
assailant’s head against the stair a second 
time, and with more vigor than before. 

^^Let up, Captain Tiptop. Do you want to 
knock my brains out?” gurgled the victim. 

As I had suspected, it was my cousin 
Tony. 

will knock your brains out if you don’t 
lie still!” I declared pantingly; and I was 
mad enough to make my threat sound very 
savage. 


190 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


^^Let me up and I won’t pitch into you 
again,” he implored. 

don’t think you will.” 

I released the grip on his throat, and we 
arose to our feet. He started to say some- 
thing more, but I cut him short. 

‘^Sit down there on the bottom step of the 
stairs and keep quiet.” 

I wanted a chance to regain my breath, 
and Tony was not loath to avail himself of 
the same privilege. For an interval nothing 
was to be heard in the dark hallway but the 
sound made by our respiratory organs. In 
spite of my command, Tony was the first to 
speak. 

‘‘Of course I didn’t know it was you. 
Cousin Hugh,” he declared in a whining 
tone. “I took you for a burglar.” 

“Don’t talk so loud.’” 

Notwithstanding my anger and excite- 
ment I had all along been careful to make as 
little noise as possible. I did not forget that 
my uncle and the Sebewa’s men, with Har- 
vey Brott, were at work in the cellar under 
us. 

“If I hadn’t thought you were a burglar 



THEX I CREPT TO THE EDGE OP THE ROOF AND LOOKED OVER. 

(Page 195.) 



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OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


191 


of course I wouldn’t have jumped on you,” 
repeated Tony, but in a lower tone. ‘‘I 
’thought you were off on a cruise with those 
chummies of yours.” 

You may be telling the truth, but I think 
you recognized me when I came out of the 
kitchen.” 

I began to talk to gain time. I wanted to 
think. An explanation for this rencounter 
soon suggested itself. Tony had just re- 
turned from his trip down the river. As I 
now listened I could hear his horse pawing 
the gravel of the driveway. I had left the 
front door unlocked and the key in the key- 
hole when I entered the building, and as 
Tony knew it had been secured in the even- 
ing he had at once perceived that something 
was wrong. By listening in the passageway 
he could hear me moving about in the kitch- 
en. It might be true that he thought I 
was a burglar, but I believed he did not be- 
gin the attack till he saw who it was. 

Tony could not have been unmindful of 
the men at work in the cellar, and I believed 
he would have allowed a thief to escape rath- 
er than raise a disturbance under the cir- 


192 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


cumstances. But in my case it was different. 
I had seen the men and the team, and Tony 
knew that his father and Captain Eckert 
would themselves have resorted to almost 
any measure, rather than allow me to leave 
the house with their secret. The fact that 
he had begun the attack himself instead of 
shouting for help was contrary to what I 
would have expected of him. The opinion I 
had come to form of my cousin was that he 
was a great booby, and cowardly, as boobies 
are. Already he seemed to be sorry for the 
action, which I could not but feel reflected 
a certain sort of credit to him. 

don’t think you ought to have cracked 
my head like that, Captain Tiptop,” he 
said, rubbing the spot on his occiput which 
had come into contact with the stairs. ‘‘You 
might know-— ” 

“Never mind! If your head aches, Tony, 
so does my back. Your head must be hard 
enough to stand a little pounding.” 

“When I tell pa he’ll attend to your 
case,” declared the aggrieved one. 

He stood up and moved toward the front 
door. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


193 


^^What are you about? Come back here!’’ 
was my remonstrance, delivered in an ener- 
getic tone. 

‘‘I am going to see to my horse. I’m going 
to take him back to the livery barn, ’ ’ he said ; 
and all the time he kept edging toward the 
door. 

‘ ^ Stand where you are I ’ ’ 

I made a step in his direction. The re- 
sult was as should have been expected. He 
leaped to the door, and even as I grappled 
with him, turned the key in the lock. At the 
same time he raised a shout. I heard a com- 
motion in the cellar, and the door at the foot 
of the cellar stairs was thrown open. 

Before I would be able to drag Tony away 
from the front hall door and unlock it, the 
enemy would be upon me in force. Retreat 
at the back of the house would be cut off by 
the enemy there. There was no time to reach 
and raise a window on the ground floor. It 
would be necessary to gain a lead on the pur- 
suers. 

All this flashed through my mind while 
Tony’s first outcry went reverberating 

13 


194 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


through the quiet house. Turning, I darted 
up the front stairs. 

As I bounded up, four steps at a time, I 
could hear the enemy from the cellar coming 
up the lower flight with similar speed. The 
pursuers would have to traverse the length 
of the halhray before they could mount the 
second flight in front. 

By the time they gained the first floor I 
had reached the second. Tony might have 
impeded my flight and compassed my cap- 
ture then and there, if he had joined in the 
chase without waiting for reinforcements 
to come up; but he contented himself with 
standing before the hall door and shouting. 

At the top of my particular flight of stairs 
I halted and looked down through the open- 
ing at the curve of the balustrade. It was 
important to know if all the party in the cel- 
lar was engaged in the pursuit through the 
house. The passageway below was so dark 
that it was impossible to see them, but I 
judged from the sound that the w^hole coterie 
had rallied at Tony’s call. I sped on my 
way. 

At the front end of the upper hallway 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


195 


was a window opening on the roof of the ve- 
randa. With half the length of the upper 
hall, and the length of the stairs between me 
and the enemy, I had plenty of time noise- 
lessly to open the window and step out. I 
even took the precaution to lower the sash 
behind me. Then I crept to the edge of the 
veranda roof and looked over. There was 
nobody in sight. 

Inside the house, on the second floor, I 
could hear the foremost of the pursuers run- 
ning about from one room to another. In a 
moment they would think of the window at 
the end of the hall. 

Swinging my feet over the edge of the 
roof I rolled over on my face, and with a 
grip fastened on the eaves, hung at full 
length. As I was unlimbering myself for 
the fall, to my dismay somebody came run- 
ning around one corner of the house ; and a 
voice shouted up at me : 

‘^Come down out of that!’’ 

I did ^^come down.” 

The speaker in his eagerness ran so close 
that he w^as directly underneath me. With- 
out waiting to reflect on the consequences. 


196 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


I let go the edge of the roof and dropped. I 
struck squarely on the shoulders of the man 
below, and together we went sprawling on 
the sod. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


A Tale of Captivity, 

The man upon whom I feU was Jesse 
Brott. This I did not ascertain until some 
moments later, for we were both rendered 
for the time being incapable of speech or ac- 
tion. 

I struck the mate of the Sebewa squarely 
on the shoulders, my feet missing his head. 
Had it not been for this latter circumstance 
it would without doubt devolve upon me at 
this juncture to recount the details of a trag- 
edy. As it was, while we were so badly shak- 
en up that we were incapable of movement 
for a brief interval, neither suffered serious 
injury. 

For a time we lay prone on the turf where 
we fell. He had gone to earth close to the 
veranda, but I was pitched clear across the 
grass plot to the edge of the carriage drive. 

197 


198 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Naturally, Jesse received the greater shock, 
but?as has been two or three times remarked 
in" the course of this history, he was a stout 
fellow. He regained his feet almost as soon 
as I did. 

My faculties were muddled, and my shoul- 
der, where it had ploughed the soft turf, felt 
as though the proverbial brick house had 
fallen upon it. Still, I did not forget that my 
purpose was to get away. The minute I 
gained an upright posture I started to run. 

I had not taken ten steps when I heard 
the mate coming after me. I darted across 
the driveway and headed for the shadow of 
the trees in front of the house. Before I 
could gain this shelter he was nearly up with 
me. It looked as though my fate was settled ; 
for in a tussle I would be no match for the 
muscular son of Harvey Brott. But I was 
not yet ready to give up. 

I allowed Jesse to approach. Then I had 
recourse to a trick which was a memory of 
the days when a school-boy battle with some 
formidable bully was a matter of frequent 
occurrence. I suddenly dropped on all fours, 
imposing myself as a stumbling block in the 


OF SLOOP-YACKT TYCOON 


199 


path of my pursuer. Jesse Brott never 
had seen a school-boy upset a bully or else he 
had forgotten his experience. He was taken 
off his guard, and before he could check his 
headlong course, tripped and went clear 
over me, turning as neat a somersault as any 
circus acrobat. 

This was Jesse’s second and unexpected 
fall, and I hoped it would put him perma- 
nently out of the contest. But it looked as 
though the raw-boned Canadian was put 
together with ligaments of steel. Before I 
could run again I had to scramble to my feet, 
and again he was as quick as I. Intercept- 
ing me in my flight for the grove he caught 
me around the legs, and for the third time 
we both went down. 

We were now panting like a pair of 
grampuses. He was content to hold me, and 
I, for my part, could not put forth another 
effort. 

In the meantime the people inside the 
house had become aware that something was 
going on outside. The front hall door was 
thrown open, and the whole crowd came 
flocking out, Tony Lupton in the lead. 


200 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘^Have you got him?’’ asked my uncle, as 
lie came up and pushed through the circle 
that formed around the mate and me. 

‘‘I’ve got him; that’s all right,” replied 
the mate ; and not till then would he let go 
of my legs and permit me to rise. 

“Fetch him into the house,” commanded 
my uncle. 

There was no use in offering further re- 
sistance. I felt that I had fought a good 
fight, though I had lost, and I was not as 
much cast down as might have been ex- 
pected. 

In the doorway as we drew up to the steps 
appeared Mrs. Brott, with a scared look on 
her face and a lighted lamp in her hand. Her 
husband roughly ordered her to get back out 
of view with the light. 

“Take it into the kitchen; we’ll talk to 
him there,” said my uncle. 

I wondered what he expected to accom- 
plish by talking. 

“One of you go down to the schooner and 
let the captain know what’s happened,” 
said Jesse Brott, addressing the two sailors 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


201 


who had been engaged in carrying boxes into 
the cellar. 

One of the twain promptly sped away in 
the direction of the river. 

‘‘It’s lucky I got here just when I did,” 
added the mate. “I was coming up to the 
house when I heard the row inside. He 
would have got away if I hadn’t buckled into 
him.” 

“I’m blessed if I see what we’re going to 
do with him now we’ve got him,” said Tony 
as the whole party, Mrs. Brott in the lead, 
marched through the house and into the 
kitchen. “Guess you’ll have to put him 
down cellar with the— ” 

There was the sound of a slap, and Tony 
subsided. 

Jesse Brott had kept one hand on my 
shoulder, and he now led me to a seat in a 
corner of the room, remote from the door. 

“Stay there till you’re wanted,” was his 
rough command, supplemented by a push 
that was anything but gentle. 

My blood boiled for a minute, but I suc- 
ceeded in keeping it from boiling over. 

During the march to the kitchen I had 


202 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


plenty of time to reflect, and an analysis of 
the situation was far from discouraging, 
from my point of view. Despite the fact 
that I was a prisoner, I felt that I was in 
better case than my captors. The expression 
on my uncle’s face would have apprised me 
of this fact if I had not known it already. 

Silas Lupton looked as though he were at 
his wit’s end, and I did not doubt that he 
was. The events of the past few days had 
convinced me that my rascally uncle was 
not overstocked with serviceable wits. The 
fact that he was engaged in the undertaking 
in which I found him, was sufficient proof 
that he was lacking in sense. The only won- 
der was that he had Captain Eckert for an 
accomplice. The skipper had impressed me 
as being a sharp” man, which is, I believe, 
the correct qualitative to apply to a rascal 
who is shrewd enough to evade arrest for 
any considerable length of time. 

The conspirators in the kitchen gathered 
in a knot in the doorway and talked in low 
but agitated tones. Jesse Brott, I gathered, 
soon convinced Silas Lupton that he would 
better not attempt to deal with me. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


203 


‘‘Just let the captain settle this business,’^ 
I heard him say. 

In a few moments the man who had been 
sent to summon the skipper was heard ap- 
proaching the house, and with him came the 
Sebewa^s commander. They entered at the 
open cellar door and came up the cellar 
stairs. The group in the doorway made way 
for the skipper as he approached. 

I regarded Captain Eckert with consid- 
erable interest. This was the first time I 
had seen him since the night of the collision 
on Lake St. Clair. He was still looking wan, 
and though he must have had surgical atten- 
tion for his hurts since that time, it was evi- 
dent that he was not much im]3roved. 

“This is what happens because Ihn not 
able to attend to everything myself,’’ were 
the words he uttered as he came into the 
room. 

He turned a fierce look upon his accom- 
plices before he cast a glance at me. 

“I thought you said this fellow had gone 
on a long cruise up the lakes ?” he exclaimed, 
his eye lighting on Tony Lupton. 

“That’s what I s ’posed he had done,” de- 


204 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


dared Tony, beginning to whine and moving 
apprehensively over toward the place where 
his father was standing. ‘‘That’s what pa 
told me to tell yon, anyway.” 

“I supposed that was right from what you 
told me,” protested Lupton, pere. 

The skipper uttered an imprecation of 
disgust, and turned to me. 

What he saw did not appear to contribute 
to his satisfaction. My face was illumined 
by a smile that I tried to make bland and 
cheerful, probably succeeding ; for the 
scowl on his features deepened. 

The skipper did not seem to know what 
to say, and I did not wonder thereat. 


CHAPTEE XXIII. 


The Mate as a Jailer. 

Captain Eckert looked ugly enough to 
wreak summary vengeance upon me. When 
he observed me smiling more broadly than 
before, he seemed to come to the conclusion 
that it would be better to temporize. 

‘^I suppose you think you’re a mighty 
smart young man?” he said, with as little 
show of rancor as he was capable of. 

‘‘Xot particularly. I wasn’t smart enough 
to get away from your right-hand man, 
Jesse Brott, you will have noticed.” 

^^What brought you here?” he demanded. 
^^What were you prowling about this house 
for, like a thief, in the middle of the night?” 

That’s good. Captain Eckert! You seem 
to forget that this house belongs to my fath- 
er, and is my home. I might ask why have 


205 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


20 G 

you invaded these premises, but I won’t ; for 
I know why.” 

At this he turned a look back over his 
shoulder at nay uncle. My uncle only shook 
his head, and the apprehensive expression 
on this face deepened. 

‘‘How long had you been prowling around 
here when Tony caught you at it?” asked 
the skipper, turning again to me. 

“Long enough to learn all that I care to 
know.” 

“A lot of good your knowledge will do 
you,” he retorted, becoming savage again. 
“Do you know what I am going to do with 
you. Master Hugh Rodman?” 

“Nothing rash, I hope, Captain Eckert,” 
was my cheerful response. 

“I’m going to keep you a prisoner till 
your big stock of knowledge becomes a drug 
on the market. I’m going to lock you up till 
you are either willing to give me your word 
of honor that you won’t prattle, or else keep 
you locked up till your prattling can’t do 
me any harm.” 

“I expected that.” 

You don’t seem to let it bother you any.” 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


207 


‘‘I am prepared to endure any inconven- 
ience that may fall to my lot. That was my 
determination when I set out to balk you 
and my worthy uncle in your little game, 
Captain Eckert.’’ 

‘‘I see there’s no use in wasting time talk- 
ing to you.” 

‘‘Not a bit of it, sir.” 

The captain went back to the group in the 
doorway. He addressed some command to 
the mate, whereupon that functionary left 
the room and the house. Soon he came back 
bearing a length of rope he had cut from 
the clothes-line. 

Captain Eckert commanded me to stand 
up and put my arms behind me. I complied, 
without any show of braggadocio. The ex- 
pression on the faces of the skipper and his 
mate warned me not to carry my self-pos- 
session too far. 

My hands were bound with a deftness that 
was eloquent of the captain’s skill with the 
rope yarn. He was not particularly careful 
to avoid hurting me. Tony Lupton’s eyes 
were uj)on me, and I knew that an expres- 


208 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


sion of suffering would delight my cousin, 
but I disappointed him. 

^^Take him down to the schooner and shut 
him into the port stateroom,’^ the skipper 
commanded, addressing the mate. ‘‘The rest 
of you turn to and finish storing away the 
stuff in the cellar. Work lively, too, for un- 
less I am as big an idiot as the rest of you 
there’ll be somebody prowling around here 
looking for traces of this fellow before many 
hours. You want to get the s.tuff all stored 
away and every last sign of our work re- 
moved.” 

The latter part of the speech sounded in 
my ears as the mate led me down the cellar 
stairs. I could only hope that interference 
would come before they succeeded in storing 
“the stuff” and the schooner got away. 

The mate had nothing to say while he led 
me down to the shore. I stepped aboard one 
of the small boats and he pulled for the 
schooner’s side. You may be sure that I 
peered with eager eyes through the darkness 
for some sign of my friends; but as Perry 
has told you, they had as yet no thought of 
my misadventure. I noticed that the sky was 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


209 


overcast and the rain would probably begin 
to fall in a very few minutes. 

Reaching the schooner, Jesse Brott made 
the boat’s painter fast to the rail amidships 
and clambered over. 

Stand up so that I can get hold of you,” 
he ordered. 

Of course I was incapable of boarding the 
vessel unassisted, with my hands bound be- 
hind me. 

I obediently stood up ; and reaching down 
he grasped me under the arms. He lifted 
me up and set me on the deck beside the rail, 
as handily as though I had been a child of 
four years. 

‘^Follow me below,” was his next com- 
mand. 

In the cabin burned a dim light. A heavy 
tarpaulin had been thrown over the sky- 
light, and the curtains were closely drawn 
over the blinds in the cabin doors. Viewed 
from without, the schooner showed no lights 
alow or aloft. 

I wondered if the captor would loosen 
or remove the bonds on my wrists, when he 
consigned me to my prison in the schooner’s 


210 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


stern. Surely, I thought, he would be hu- 
mane enough for that. But he was not yet 
ready to lock me up, and I had to endure the 
fetters a while longer. 

- His first care was to take a look into the 
port stateroom. He brought out several ar- 
ticles of clothing which, as this was his 
room, probably belonged to him. One of the 
habiliments was a tarpaulin hat, which, as 
I had lost my own headgear during the 
struggle at the house, I asked him to leave 
in the room for my use. He advanced the 
opinion that I would have mighty little use 
for a hat, but complied with my request. 

Next he tried the lock on the stateroom 
door and satisfied himself that it was in good 
working order. The key was hanging in- 
side the room, and when he finished his trial 
of the lock he left it on the outside. Despite 
the satisfactory condition of the lock, he 
did not seem to feel sure that it would keep 
me in. 

‘‘What are you grinning atT’ he demand- 
ed, observing me smiling at his indecision. 

“You seem to be afraid that I am going to 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


211 


get away. To be sure, I shall get out of there, 
if I can.” 

‘‘That’ll be all right; but probably it 
wouldn’t do you much good if you did get 
out of the stateroom. There’ll be somebody 
on deck to keep an eye to windward. Just 
as sure as you ever are caught up there you 
get a start for the hospital. There ain’t go- 
ing to be any more monkey business about 
this job, if I can help it.” 

I believed him. 

He took the precaution to re-examine my 
bonds, and then went forward into the gal- 
ley, where I heard him rummaging around 
in a locker. In a moment he reappeared 
with a bit and bit-stock and an iron bolt. 
With the bit and stock he bored a hole in the 
casing of the stateroom door, directing the 
bit at such an angle that when the bolt 
should be inserted it would prevent the door 
being opened from within. If I should suc- 
ceed in forcing or picking the lock, I would 
still be unable to remove the bolt without 
cutting a hole in the door. 

One of the possessions in my pocket at 
that minute was a jackknife, but I had no 


212 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


idea that I would be allowed to carry it into 
my prison. This supposition did not run 
amiss, for as soon as he finished boring the 
hole in the casing and had tried the efficacy 
of the bolt, Jesse commanded me to stand 
and be searched. Besides the knife, my oth- 
er possessions were my watch and pocket- 
book, together with two or three note-books 
and some old letters. These latter he did not 
deprive me of. The mate of the Sebewa 
might be an evil-doer on a large scale, but 
probably he was not capable of petty thiev- 
ery. The knife alone he kept. When he had 
possessed himself of it he untied my hands 
and commanded me to enter the stateroom. 
I did so, and he closed, locked and bolted 
the door. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

^'Fessenden, Ahoy!^^ 

Locked in the port stateroom of the Se- 
bewa I was in a situation to appreciate the 
account Denny had given of his visit to the 
vessel, when he declared it was so dark be- 
low the schooner’s deck that he could ‘‘taste” 
the gloom. 

The stateroom door closed hermetically, 
not a glimmer of light reaching me from the 
cabin. The only medium of ventilation was a 
single round window, or port, in the stern, 
not much bigger than a dinner-plate and 
provided with a thick glass in an iron rim. 

My first act, when the footsteps of the 
mate were lost to hearing forward, was to 
kneel on the berth opposite the door and 
open this window. The atmosphere in the 
narrow, stuffy room was suffocating, but the 
open port afforded some relief. 

213 


214 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


A glance had assured me that the port of- 
fered no hope of escape. Of course, if it had 
offered such a hope my captors would not 
have left it unlocked. The view through the 
aperture was of the darkly rolling river 
and the sky overcast with clouds. The moon 
had set, and in a few moments after my in- 
carceration it began to rain dismally. 

For what seemed a very long time I sat 
on the edge of the berth and listened to the 
sound of the wind and the rain. The falling 
drops struck loudly on the deck over my 
head, that portion of the stateroom in which 
the berth was placed being back from the 
trunk-cabin, and my head coming within an 
inch of the deck planks. It was after what 
seemed to be an hour, but which could hard- 
ly have been more than a quarter of that 
time, that I heard a boat approach from the 
direction of the shore. Then came the sound 
of feet treading the deck forward. In anoth- 
er moment the cheep-cheep of tackle blocks, 
as the boat was hoisted at the davits, mingled 
with the clanking of the capstan pawls as 
the anchor was hove short. 

Little things assume significance to a per- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


215 


son in my position. My ruling hope at the 
moment was that something would happen 
to prevent the sailing of the schooner; and 
it was interference from the direction of the 
river that I looked for. The reader will not 
be wholly mystified, perhaps, when I add 
that I expected to hear at any moment a 
loud hail, to be followed by the boarding of 
the schooner and my own consequent re- 
lease. The sound of the capstan pawls ap- 
prised me that this hope was vain. If there 
had been any fear in the minds of the Se- 
bewa’s crew that interference was at all 
probable at that moment, Captain Eckert 
would not have allowed his men to turn the 
capstan without setting back the pawls so as 
to obviate the clinking sound as they trav- 
eled over the ratchet. 

By this time the anchor was tripped. Cap- 
tain Eckert had come aft and was at his po- 
sition at the wheel. His words were plainly 
audible to me, as he issued orders for mak- 
ing sail. The headsails were first set, and 
the schooner’s prow fell off from the wind. 
I had a momentary view of the shore, barely 
discernible even at that short distance 


216 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


through the darkness and the rain. 

Heading diagonally away from the land 
the skipper set his foresail and mainsail and 
shook out his topsails. The vessel’s course 
was finally laid down stream and nearly par- 
allel with the right bank. 

Not long after this a commotion occurred 
on the decks overhead that for the moment 
thrilled me with hope. 

I heard some one come running aft; and 
then the mate’s voice, with a tremor of fear 
in it, announced that there were steamer’s 
lights in view just over the port bow. 

believe it’s the Fessenden,” he added. 
‘‘I can make out her build. She’s squatty 
amidships and sharp forward, just like the 
cutter.” 

^‘You’ve got good eyesight,” the voice of 
the skipper responded derisively. ‘‘The cut- 
ter is up at Port Huron. I saw an item in 
the marine column of one of the papers 
while I was up in the city yesterday.” 

“Then the paper was wrong. I know the 
Fessenden well enough to tell her on a 
darker night than this.” 

“Take the wheel;” commanded his supe- 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


217 


rior. can’t see anything past the main- 
sail. I’ll just take a look for myself.” 

I heard him step to the lee rail, and prob- 
ably he bent down so that he could see under 
the boom. By this time, apparently, the 
steamer was very near ; for when the captain 
spoke it was in a low tone— so low that I 
could only just distinguish what he said, 
though he was directly over me. 

guess you’re right, Brott!” were his 
words; and I could detect apprehension in 
their softly modulated utterance. Wliat do 
you suppose the old catamaran is poking 
around this part of the river for?” 

‘‘I’m afraid she’s looking for us,” an- 
swered the man at the wheel. 

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe we’re 
suspected. ” 

“Where is she now?” 

“Square abeam and holding to her course 
up-stream. If they’re looking for us they 
haven’t seen us yet. Lucky we didn’t show 
any lights when we got under way.” 

That I might the more plainly hear this 
dialogue I had again kneeled on the berth 
and put my head close to the port. As the 


218 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


last utterance of the skipper reached my 
ears I thrust my head through the opening 
and shouted as loudly as I could bawl : 

“Fessenden, ahoy!’’ 

“Moses and Aaron!” ejacuated the skip- 
per. 

Before I could open my mouth to repeat 
the hail the mate had turned from the wheel. 
He reached down over the rail, at the immi- 
nent peril of falling overboard, and dealt me 
a cuff that made my ears ring. 

“Pull in that head, or I’ll knock it off,” 
was his savage command. 

Half stunned, I obeyed. Benny in my 
case would have affirmed that his head felt 
as though he had stopped the flight of a can- 
non ball. 

While I rubbed it I listened for some 
sound which would indicate that my call had 
been heard and understood. I listened in 
vain. 

The skipper took his place at the rail, 
and the mate was heard to put the wheel up a 
spoke or two. The schooner and the cutter 
by this time had passed on their contrary 
courses. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


219 


‘‘She keeps on her way all right,” I heard 
the wheelsman observe. 

“She does— no thanks to that young cub 
in the stateroom,” responded the skipper. 

“I’ve a notion to go down and crack his 
empty head against the deck.” 

“It won’t do him any good to holler now,” 
said the mate soothingly. “They’re out of 
hail.” 

This was the only episode that occurred to 
vary the monotony of the voyage down 
stream. I made use of the port but once af- 
ter that. It was too look for the Tycoon 
when we passed her anchorage, but it was so 
dark that I could not see her. I might have 
called out again, but it would have done no 
good, and might have impelled the skipper 
to put his threat into execution. 

After a long time I heard Captain Eckert 
come below and enter the starboard state- 
room. The bulkhead under the companion- 
way was thin, and soon I was listening to 
the sounds of his heavy breathing as he 
slept. 

To my surprise I found that I, too, was 
sleepy. Striking a match I looked at my 


220 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


watch : half -past two. There was nothing I 
could do to better my situation that night, 
and I reasoned that I might as well imitate 
the captain if I could. 

It did not seem as though I would be able 
to sleep much, but I must have dropped off 
as soon as I stretched myself in the berth. I 
had removed my coat and vest and shoes, 
and I slept as soundly as ever I did in my 
berth in the Tycoon’s cabin or in my bed at 
home. Only once was my slumber disturbed. 

Through the hazy atmosphere of dream- 
land there was borne to my ears the sound 
of the chain-cable running through the 
hawse-hole at the vessel’s bow. The noise 
was accompanied by the creaking of blocks 
and the rattle of mast-hoops and travelers 
as the sails were lowered and stored. The 
schooner meantime swung around to her an- 
chor; but I only turned over and slept 
sounder than before. 

When I awoke the sun was pouring its 
rays athwart the Sebewa’s stern, and one 
glancing shaft of light penetrated the open 
port and gilded the bulkhead at the foot of 
my bed. The twittering of birds in the trees 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


221 


on shore mingled with the murmur of the 
river as it flowed swiftly past the schooner’s 
side. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


Taking on a Cargo, 

It was the bright sunlight that had awak- 
ened me. My first care after swinging out 
of the berth in my prison was to note the 
time. The hour was seven, and a gnawing 
sensation in the region of the waistband re- 
minded me that it was long after my usual 
breakfast time. 

There were no sounds of activity on board 
the vessel. Save for the breathing of the two 
sleepers close at hand all was silence. One of 
the slumberers was Captain Eckert, whose 
sonorous respirations sounded through the 
thin bulkhead between the staterooms. The 
other was probably the mate. Having been 
dispossessed of his quarters by a captive he 
had made up a bed in the cabin. Doubtless 
the mate and the men were up till after day- 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


223 


break, and they were likely to sleep for a 
good while. 

Seeing no prospect of breakfast I turned 
my attention to a study of the schooner’s 
position. Thrusting my head through the 
port, I discovered that we were anchored 
close in shore and not far above some town. 
The shining dome of a school-house, or other 
public building, was to be seen, and a church 
steeple reared its lofty length above the in- 
tervening treetops. As of course the 
schooner was pointed up-stream, and as the 
shore was on the starboard beam, this was 
Canadian territory. During the night the 
schooner had edged across the river. 

When I thought I had waited a reasonable 
length of time for my breakfast I pounded 
lustily on the stateroom door. The rumpus 
was effectual in arousing both the Sebewa’s 
officers. Responding to their savage de- 
mands as to what was meant by the racket, 
I stated my wants. 

We ’ll feed you in a few minutes,” said 
the mate; and then I heard them both get 
up. In a few moments they left the cabin. 

Sounds soon arose throughout the vessel. 


224 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Not the least interesting detail was the rat- 
tling of dishes in the cabin. When, after the 
lapse of half an hour or so, Captain Eckert 
and Jesse Brott again came below, the latter 
unlocked the door of my prison. I felt as 
though I had been released from a tomb, 
and availed myself of the opportunity to 
take several turns across the larger apart- 
ment to stretch my legs. I did not approach 
the companion-stair, for it was certain 
enough that a movement in that direction 
would bring down punishment upon me. 

We three— the skipper, the mate, and my- 
self— ate our breakfast in company. It was 
a good breakfast, composed of fried ham 
and eggs, bread and butter and coffee. Fresh 
eggs, I will warrant, are not often to be 
found in the larder of any vessel of the Se- 
bewa’s class, anywhere but on the Great 
Lakes, or some similar body of water. The 
sailors of the inland seas, I have been told 
and I believe, fare better than salt water 
crews. I did not hesitate to eat my full share 
of the meal set before us. The skipper 
seemed to regard my performance with 
knife and fork with a certain measure of 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


225 


approval. Perhaps he accepted it as evi- 
dence that I had become resigned to captiv- 
ity. If he did so, he was in error. 

The meal was eaten in absolute silence. 
One of the crew attended us, and he passed 
to and fro between the table and the galley 
like a dumb servitor of an oriental poten- 
tate. When the skipper and his right-hand 
man left the table they went at once on deck. 
Attempting to engage the waiter in conver- 
sation I met with a rebuff. He refused to 
show that he even heard me speak, and hope 
of diversion in that direction had to be given 
up. 

Bound to test the length of my tether, I 
started to mount the companionway. The 
skipper was seated on a camp-stool near the 
wheel, smoking. 

‘^Get back out of that!’’ was his rough 
command the instant my head appeared on 
a level with the deck. 

In the mate’s stateroom I had seen a shelf 
at one of the bulkheads with several books 
and papers. I looked over the supply, find- 
ing a volume which, while of a trashy char- 
15 


226 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


acter, served to help while away the hours 
of that tedious day. 

The only break in the monotony of events 
were the meals, and they were not markedly 
convivial ; for, as at the first, everybody re- 
fused to talk to me. Night came ; I had read 
the borrowed book through, and felt as 
though I had been mured in the schooner’s 
cabin for a fortnight. With the fall of night 
there came new developments. 

The first episode on the program was a 
visit from my kind friend, the mate. He 
invited me to return to the port stateroom. 
I did so ; and as before he locked and bolted 
the door behind me. A little later, hearing 
suggestive noises forward, I was prompted 
to take up the old position on the berth with 
my head through the port. 

The night was clear and the moon poured 
its light down over the tree-tops, bathing 
the schooner in its gleams. As I looked forth, 
two boats moved shoreward from the 
schooner’s side. Then came a repetition in 
reverse of the scene witnessed when the Se- 
bewa lay at anchor off the Tycoon’s wharf at 
home. 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


227 


A wagon laden with the same square boxes 
before seen came driving down to the wa- 
ter’s edge, and its load was transferred to 
the boats. When the first wagon load had 
been ferried to the vessel, the boats returned 
to meet another team which appeared as 
soon as the first drove away. Two more boat 
loads were brought off and stored in the for- 
ward hold. Then the boats were hoisted at 
the davits and the schooner was gotten un- 
der way. The whole labor of receiving this 
second cargo occupied about three hours. 

Once under way the Sebewa was headed 
diagonally across the river again. We were 
homeward bound ! 

As it turned out, we were not to reach our 
destination that night, though such seemed 
to have been the calculation on the part of 
my captors. The wind was light at starting, 
and it soon died down to a zephyr. A dia- 
logue between the captain and mate, which 
as before came to my ears through the open 
port, informed me of the condition of affairs 
on deck. 

^‘We can’t make it before daylight,” the 
mate observed. 


228 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


course we can’t,’’ responded the cap- 
tain crossly. ‘‘A mule driver on a canal 
would know we can’t make way when the 
wind falls dead.” 

“I suppose, then, we’ll have to lay by 
somewhere till to-morrow night,” continued 
the other, seemingly not abashed. 

“You don’t think we’re going to creep up 
there in daylight, do you? Of course we’ll 
have to lay by. It’s the question where, 
that’s bothering me. I don’t know but it 
might be better to keep moving. It may 
look funny to see a vessel of this size an- 
chored in the river all day, nowhere near 
port.” 

“Not if the wind dies down entirely. In 
that case we’ll have company, most like; 
there’ll be other up-bound craft that’ll have 
to lay by, too.” 

“I’m not hankering for company,” 
growled the skipper ; and the statement 
sounded reasonable. 

For some time after this the conversation 
lapsed. The schooner pursued her way, and 
every moment she rose farther toward a 
level keel, a fact which indicated that the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


229 


wind continued to fall. It was coming so 
lightly that I could barely feel it through the 
port. 

^‘What do you suppose has become of the 
cutterl’^ were the next words of the mate; 
and they at once fixed my attention. 

“I don’t know what has become of her. 
How should I? I don’t know that I care, 
either. I don’t believe they’ve had any tip 
about me. The stuff up there in the cellar 
will be safe enough for a month yet, and 
Lupton can get it into the city, a little at a 
time, without exciting suspicion. Captain 
Rodman, the father of the boy below, is in 
Europe, or on his way there, by this time, 
and we’ve got the boy himself, where he 
won’t be likely to squeal.” 

He ’ll hear what you’re saying.” 
don’t care if he does hear. What he 
hears won’t do him a lot of good.” 

Again there was silence for an interval. 
Then the mate was off on a new tack. 

^‘Speaking of Lupton,” said he, don’t 
think that fellow is as sharp as he ought to 
be for this business.” 

^‘He’s a dough-head!” was the response, 


230 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


delivered with a heartiness that bespoke a 
matured opinion. ‘‘If I had known what a 
numbskull he is I wouldn’t have gone into 
the business with him at all.” 

“He may have bungled the business, worse 
than he did by allowing us to land the stuff 
at the house before the boy got away on his 
cruise,” suggested the mate significantly. 

“How’s that?” demanded the captain, his 
tone indicating alarm. 

“He told us that the coast would be clear, 
as far as the boy’s father, was concerned. 
Maybe he was off his reckoning there, too.” 

“I don’t think so. When the boy’s father 
left us it was to take a train for New York 
and a boat for Havre, France. If he is any- 
where in this neck of the woods why hasn’t 
he shown up?” 

Jesse Brott could not answer this ques- 
tion, and neither could I ; but if I had been 
given to betting I would have been willing to 
wager a tidy sum that I could have come 
nearer a correct guess than either of the men 
on deck. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


The Girl With a Bicycle, 

Notwithstanding the failing wind the 
schooner held to her course throughout the 
greater part of the night. 

Sometime in the small hours of the morn- 
ing I was awakened from a light slumber by 
the familiar rattling of the chain cable and 
the creaking of blocks as anchor and canvas 
were lowered. With the thought that we 
must have covered about half of the return 
course I resigned myself to sleep again. 

The day dawned brightly and clearly and 
with a gentle breeze from the southwest. 
The Sebewa, like a nocturnal bird of prey, 
took wing only during the hours of darkness, 
and I knew that the anchor would not again 
be weighed till night-fall. As on the day be- 
fore, I had recourse to the proscribed view 
through the port to ascertain our position. 


232 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


We were now anchored in a bend of the 
river, close to the American shore. A good 
view of the land was ta be had, and I regard- 
ed the prospect with interest, for it was a 
familiar one. 

Along the low-lying shore line a few rods 
back from the water’s edge, ran a wagon 
road, plainly visible through the intervening 
forest growth. Any one riding there could 
plainly see the river, and any vessels passing 
or at anchor. Captain Eckert had chosen an 
exposed anchorage, but doubtless he made a 
show of necessity. As he could not entirely 
conceal his craft he sought by boldness to 
avert suspicion. 

But just now, though this was a 'much 
traveled thoroughfare, no vehicle nor pedes- 
trian was in sight. After all, I reflected, I 
was not looking for help in that direction 
and could hardly expect it to come that way. 
I settled back in my berth and tried to go 
to sleep again. Silence reigned on board the 
schooner. As the crew had not turned in till 
probably after daylight it was likely that 
none of them would awaken before noon. 

A^Tiile I lay thus, vainly striving to find 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


233 


oblivion and freedom from the thoughts 
that vexed me, I heard the faint rumble of a 
wagon as it wheeled along the roadway. We 
were so near, and the quietude was so com- 
plete, that I almost fancied I could hear the 
driver clucking to his horses. The sight of a 
stranger, however distant the view, would 
be grateful in my captivity, and again I 
kneeled on the berth and looked through the 
port. 

A two-horse covered vehicle was passing, 
and the canvas top on the heavy farm wagon 
was sufficient to proclaim the driver a truck 
farmer. He was headed for the city. I 
watched this outfit nearly out of sight and 
was about to draw dack, when I caught a 
glimpse of a bicycle as it met and darted be- 
hind the team, coming in my direction. I 
could not be certain, but I believed the rider 
was a girl or a woman. Here was somebody 
of rather more interest than a truck farmer 
for a weary captive to gaze at. The wheel 
came into plainer view in a moment. I was 
measurably gratified to learn that my first 
supposition, that the rider was a girl, was 
not amiss. 


234 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


The bicycle came slowly trundling along, 
and the fair unknown appeared to be now as 
deliberate, as she had a moment before 
seemed to be in haste. There could be no 
doubt that she had noticed the vessel lying at 
anchor and that she was regarding it with 
interest. Of course I drew in my head long 
enough to thrust an arm through the port 
and wave a salute with my handkerchief. 
When I looked again, to my surprise the 
wheelwoman had dismounted and was rang- 
ing her machine against a tree by the way- 
side. 

Apparently the fair unknown meant to 
tarry a while and pay me a call, though cir- 
cmnstances would necessitate that it be a 
long-range visit. I was appropriately grat- 
ified by her condescension. But now, as she 
came picking her way through the sparse 
woods toward the water’s edge, it struck 
me that her appearance was not unfamiliar. 
Before she came close enough for me to dis- 
tinguish her features I made out her cos- 
tume— a blue skirt and a waist of white with 
blue trimmings. "When she reached the riv- 
er’s edge a little ways below the schooner 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


235 


and again turned to look in my direction I 
recognized her. She was Thyra Benson. 

She was on the point of calling out to me. 
I shook my head to enjoin silence. The mo- 
tion was understood, and it was plain that 
she was at a loss to know what to do. In this 
respect she was not a whit worse off than 
myself. Though so near, she was yet seem- 
ingly too far to render it possible for us to 
communicate. However, she proved more 
ready in expedients than I. 

I saw her raise both hands above her head, 
and with her fingers she fashioned letters of 
the alphabet in the double-hand code of the 
dumb. These were the words she signalled : 

^‘What can I do?” 

With my hands before the port I returned 
answer in similar fashion : 

am afraid nothing, now.” 

To this she made response: will get a 

boat.” 

My rejoinder was not of a nature to en- 
courage her: am locked in.” 

To my surprise she signaled back: will 

release you.” 

I would have interposed as emphatic an 


236 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


objection as I possibly could have framed by 
the use of sign language, but she did not 
wait for me to have my say. 

She hurried back through the trees, and 
with a parting flourish of her handkerchief 
mounted and sped down the road. She 
seemed to know just what she purposed to 
accomplish, but I was filled with doubt. 

She was gone an hour. Then I saw her ap- 
proaching in a skiff. 

Thyra was an expert oarswoman and 
owned a skiff of her own. After she came 
into view around the bend in the shore she 
was not more than ten minutes in reaching 
the schooner’s anchorage. She approached 
boldly, but with care not to make any un- 
necessary noise with the oars. Ranging the 
skiff under the stern of the schooner she fas- 
tened a hold on the rail. I was able to reach 
through the port and give her disengaged 
hand a hearty clasp. 

^^1 have been looking for you since yester- 
day morning,” she said in a low voice. 

I expressed my surprise. 

^^When Perry came home and told us 
about this vessel, and about your going up to 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


237 


your old home, and that you had disap- 
peared,’’ she explained, guessed that you 
were on board this boat. I have been riding 
up and down the river road the most of my 
leisure time since, expecting to see some- 
thing of you.” 

I wondered how she expected to accom- 
plish anything now that she had found me, 
though of course I did not say so. I inquired 
for my two friends and the yacht, and was 
told that the Tycoon was moored at the ship- 
yard and that Perry and Denny were on 
board of her. 

Where did you borrow that boat?” was 
my next question. 

^^Of a farmer a little ways down the river 
—a friend of father’s. I intend to ferry 
you ashore and take you back home with me, 
Hugh.” 

^Hf I could have escaped from the state- 
room I would have gotten ashore long ago, 
Thyra.” 

^‘How are you fastened in?” 

' ‘^The door is locked, and there is a bolt to 
hold it also. I would have tried to cut my 
way through, but the captain is asleep in the 


238 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


stateroom next to me and the mate is asleep 
in the cabin.” 

it were not for the door being locked 
I might come on board and remove the bolt 
so that you could get out.” 

‘^The key is in the lock; but do not think 
of such a thing as coming on board. I have 
told you that the mate is in the cabin.” 

am not afraid of the mate, or the cap- 
tain, either,” she said with a smile. ‘‘They 
are both asleep, you say ; and there is only 
one man on deck, the deck- watch, isn’t 
that what he would be called But he is also 
asleep, up in the bows with his head resting 
on a coil of rope. I am not afraid of him 
either.” 

“Thyra, I do not want you to undertake 
it,” I protested earnestly; and I thought of 
what Perry and her father would say. 

But Miss Thyra was mainly accustomed to 
having her own way. She seemed to have 
derived the idea that I must be released at 
any risk. Notwithstanding my protest she 
began to move the skiff forward, propelling 
it by aid of her grasp on the rail. 

Her obvious purpose was to board the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


239 


schooner at the port main-channel. I did 
not dare to call out to her to come back, and 
I could only hold my breath in suspense. 

Five minutes’ silence ensued, and then I 
heard her footsteps on the cabin stairs. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


A Brief But Decisive Battle. 

There was no indication of hesitancy in 
the approach of Thyra, but I thought of 
possible consequences should the captain or 
mate awaken while she was in the cabin, 
and my heart stood still. 

I heard her reach the foot of the stairs. 
Then came the sound of the key softly 
turned in the lock of my prison door. The 
next instant the bolt was withdrawn and the 
door was softly opened. Up to this moment 
I had not ventured to move for fear of 
awakening the sleepers, but now I stepped 
quickly across the threshold. 

Thyra stood with her finger on her lips 
and pointed to the cabin table. On the table 
lay the mate. He had made up a bed there of 
sail-cloth and clothing, and he seemed to be 
sleeping as soundly as though he were in 

240 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


241 


possession of the berth in the port state- 
room. 

I motioned for Thyra to precede me up 
the companion-stair. She complied, and I 
closed and locked the stateroom door, taking 
the precaution to replace the bolt. There 
was no telling that he might not rouse up 
and cast a precautionary glance in that di- 
rection, and this might happen before we 
could get safely away from the vessel. 

To move cautiously was essential, and I 
was as deliberate as the occasion required. 
The purpose was to give my fair liberator 
plenty of time to regain the skiff, so that her 
escape might be assured in any event. As I 
started to mount the stairs in my turn I 
heard her going over the side at the port 
main-channel. 

As luck would have it, Thyra ’s nerve, 
which had stood a strain of which I would 
not have believed it capable, weakened 
somewhat at this juncture, or perhaps she 
thought our escape was assured. Instead of 
descending softly into the boat, as she had 
left it, she leaped down from the height of the 

channel. The sound, soft as it was, as she 
16 


242 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


struck upon the flat bottom of the craft re- 
sounded through the silent vessel. Someone 
was heard to move on the forward deck— the 
deck- watch— and Thyra sounded a cry of 
alarm : 

Hurry, Hugh; hurry!’’ 

With two bounds I reached the level of 
the deck. I was just in time to meet the 
watch, who came running along the port 
gangway. Before I could round the end of 
the trunk-cabin he was between me and the 
boat. 

With the rapidity of a glance I took in 
the situation. Thyra was safely in the skiff, 
and had cast off the painter, with which she 
had taken a turn around the back-stay to 
hold the boat in position when she came be- 
low. She was now holding the craft up to the 
side by clinging to the rail; and when she 
saw me pause as if to give battle to the deck- 
watch she began to work her way hand over 
hand toward the schooner’s stern, propel- 
ling the boat. 

Since the deck-watch was between me and 
the boat I had perforce to pause. He was a 
stout fellow, with a distinctly Hibernian 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


243 


cast of countenance, and I had heard him ad- 
dressed as Conroy. He looked as though he 
was full of fight. He evidently was, by this 
time, entirely alive to what was going on. 
He uttered a shout and continued to dash to- 
ward me. 

When I came bounding to the deck I had 
glanced at the wheel. On the deck I saw a 
long wooden belaying-pin. Lazy steersmen 
sometimes use these implements to belay the 
wheel when the wind is fresh and steady. 
By thrusting it between the spokes they can 
relieve momentarily the strain on their 
arms. As I fell back before Conroy’s im- 
petuous advance I picked up the belaying- 
pin. 

My next maneuver, when I began to rise to 
an upright posture, was to dodge the enemy. 
Deck room between the trunk-cabin and the 
rail was limited, but there was enough of it 
to permit the bellicose watchman to over- 
shoot his mark and go past me. As he 
turned to face me again I caught him 
squarely across the forehead with the heavy 
stick. There was no chance at such a mo- 
ment to measure the force of a blow. Under 


244 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the impulse of my assault the sailor went 
down like a stricken bullock. He fell across 
the head of the companion-stair with his 
neck doubled up against the trunk-cabin. 
The awful thought that I had killed him 
rooted me to the deck. A movement at the 
foot of the stairs stirred me to action again. 

The watchman’s shout and the sound of 
his falling body had awakened the men in 
the cabin. The mate was heard to spring off 
the table and the captain to fling open the 
door of his stateroom. 

Without waiting for them to appear I 
scrambled over the rail and joined Thyra in 
the boat. She shoved off, and I picked up 
the oars. As I buried the blades of the oars 
and she headed the craft for the nearest 
point on shore the mate, followed by the cap- 
tain, appeared at the head of the cabin 
stair. They had to lift the inert form of the 
deck-watch out of the way before they could 
step out on deck. 

The Sebewa’s crew now came scrambling 
up through the hatch forward, and in re- 
sponse to a loud command from the skipper 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


245 


ran toward the boat hanging at the davits, in 
the waist on the port side of the vessel. 

By this time the skiff was half-way to the 
shore, and I regarded our escape as assured. 
For the first time I looked into the face of 
my companion. She was very pale, and I 
feared that she was going to collapse. 

We are safe, now,’^ I hastened to assure 
her. ‘‘They are lowering a boat, but by the 
time it clears the side we will be on shore.’’ 

“Hugh, you struck that man a terrible 
blow. Do you suppose you killed him?” 

“Hardly! He has risen to his feet and is 
going forward to take his place in the boat. 
He is rubbing his head with the back of his 
wrist. I’d be willing to bet there’ll be a lump 
there in a few minutes as big as his fist.” 

As these words were spoken the bottom of 
the skiff grounded, and I stepped ashore. 

“We must leave the boat, Hugh,” said my 
companion, as I assisted her to land ; and she 
cast a glance over her shoulder at the 
schooner. 

I agreed with her. The schooner’s men by 
this time had gotten their boat into the water. 
It looked as though they were bent on 


246 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


continuing the pursuit on land. We did not 
pause to observe their approach, but made 
our way up the bank. On the way I told her 
what to do. 

‘^Eeturn to the farm-house and get your 
wheel. I will take the other direction— 
towards the city. They will not pursue you, 
for it is me, and me alone, they want. They 
will not catch me, for I shall have a good 
start.’’ 

At the margin of the woods, accordingly, 
we separated. The boat with the Sebewa’s 
men had not yet reached the shore. 

‘‘Don’t be alarmed, and don’t even 
hurry,” I implored of her as she set out. “I 
shall engage their full attention.” 

The action of Captain Eckert, who was 
steering the boat, must have reassured her 
more than my words; for the skipper, ob- 
serving me to strike off to the right, prompt- 
ly headed his boat up stream a little, so as to 
make a landing as nearly as possible in the 
line of pursuit. No attention was bestowed 
on my late companion, but the skipper’s gaze 
was fixed on me. 

“If you catch me. Captain Eckert, you 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


247 


will show yourself a better runner than I 
think you are capable of proving,’’ was my 
thought; and I laid my course across the 
road and into the woods on the landward 
side. 

As I made good my escape it will not be 
necessary to give a detailed account of the 
chase. Suffice it to say that the schooner’s 
men followed me quite to the city limits, but 
at no time did they draw close enough to 
cause apprehension. 

It was long after noon when I entered the 
city, and I was pretty well fagged. Nobody 
knew better than I, however, that the affairs 
of the evil-doers v/ere rapidly approaching 
the climax, and that there was no time to be 
lost. My plan of action was carefully 
mapped out, and I hastened to put it into 
execution. I headed straight for the ship- 
yard and the sloop. 

On board the Tycoon I found Denny 
Cleary. Perry had just gone home. Denny 
was overjoyed to see me. He wanted to hear 
my story at once. 

‘Hn a little while,” I promised him. 

I asked him to go up to the Benson’s and 


248 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


summon our friend. While he was gone I 
cooked and ate the first food I had tasted 
that day. It put new life into me, and I felt 
that I was ready for the closing scenes in the 
series of unusual events that had thrust 
themselves into my ordinarily quiet life. 

Perry brought with him from the house a 
grateful bit of news. *Thyra had just re- 
turned, having been driven to the city limits 
by the farmer’s wife, whence she had 
wheeled the rest of the way home. 

‘^What nowT’ asked Denny, as I gave the 
command to make all sail on the sloop. 

hunt for the revenue cutter Fessen- 
den, and failing in that search, a consulta- 
tion with the collector of the port.” 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


The Beginning of the End, 

The statement that our first step would be 
to find the revenue cutter, or, failing in that, 
to see the collector of the port, to Denny’s 
mind called for an explanation. To give it 
was to detail all that had occurred since I 
parted company with my friends at the time 
of leaving them in charge of the sloop. This 
recital was given. Perry seemed prepared 
for my disclosures, and while he listened he 
gave his best attention to the river ; for while 
I talked we did not lose sight of the imme- 
diate purpose in view. 

When I reached that point in my narra- 
tive where the sailor from the Sebewa 
dropped the packing-case on the cellar floor 
and I heard the sound of breaking glass, 
Denny jumped to his feet. 


249 


250 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


‘‘Bottles!’’ lie exclaimed. 

“Undoubtedly.” 

“AVliisky bottles,” he added. 

“Right again,” I agreed, joining Perry in 
a laugh. 

“I see the hole in the ladder,” declared 
Denny. “The Sebewa’s people and your 
uncle are smugglers— whisky smugglers.” 

“It seems to me, Denny,” said Perry at 
this point, “that a fellow who has lived on 
the Detroit River all his life and read the 
daily papers for several years ought to have 
guessed the truth long ago. Of course the 
Sebewa is a smuggler.” 

Denny was not at all abashed. 

“Go ahead with your yarn. Captain Tip- 
top,” said he, taking his seat again. “I see 
the finish, though.” 

The remainder of the story was an ac- 
count of my capture, incarceration on board 
the schooner, and escape with the help of 
Thyra. As may well be credited to me, I did 
not fail to give my fair rescuer a great deal 
of credit for the part she had played. No 
sooner was the recital finished than Denny 



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OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


251 


was ready with an opinion as to future 
events. 

‘‘When the smugglers let you get away, 
Captain Tiptop, they spilled the fat into the 
flames,’’ he declared. “If we can only get 
the revenue people on their trail before dark, 
we can capture the schooner before she can 
get back into Canadian waters.” 

“I don’t see how you can feel so sure of 
that,” interposed Perry, who was never in- 
clined to have a high opinion of Denny’s de- 
ductions. “There is wind to move the sloop. 
What’s to prevent the schooner from mov- 
ing, also"?” 

“They chased Captain Tiptop clear up to 
the city limits, didn’t they?” demanded the 
crew. 

“So it appears.” 

“Then it’ll take them till nearly dark to 
get back to their boat, won’t it ?” 

“Possibly.” 

“And after that, with this wind, they 
won’t be able to get out of reach, will they?” 

“You are correct, as far as you go, 
Denny,” said I. “The smugglers on the 
schooner are not^the only ones we want to 


252 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


apprehend, though. I confess that I am 
more anxious to bring my uncle to book than 
I am to see Captain Eckert caught.” 

^‘They won’t know anything about your 
escape at the house, and they will be expect- 
ing the schooner to come up to-night with 
her second cargo.” 

Perry sniffed. 

‘^They will, Denny, unless Captain Eckert 
has been thoughtful and considerate enough 
to send one of his men to warn them,” I in- 
terposed. 

It may as well be interpolated right here 
that Captain Eckert did not warn his ac- 
complices. Whether he wilfully kept them 
in ignorance of their impending capture or 
whether he forgot all about them, I never 
learned. The movements of the law-break- 
ers were full of blunders, as the jnovements 
of law-breakers are said usually to be, and it 
is possible that the skipper of the Sebewa 
blundered here as he had done at several 
critical points. 

All the time we talked we kept the sloop 
to her course down the river. Perry told of 
his and Denny’s cruise down the stream 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


253 


while they were in search of the Sebewa; 
and as at that time they had seen nothing of 
the Government vessel I concluded that our 
chances were better in the other direction. 
The wisdom of this finding became appar- 
ent when we drew up to the city. 

We sighted the cutter lying at anchor off 
the foot of Woodward avenue, the principal 
thoroughfare. At the moment of this dis- 
covery certain movements on the vessel’s 
decks apprised us that she was about to get 
under way. 

^ ^They’re piping the crew to stations,” 
declared Denny excitedly. ^‘Why don’t you 
signal her. Captain Tiptop?” 

He had taken the glass from Perry and 
was leveling it at the cutter. 

^^No use to signal,” said Perry. ‘^They 
couldn’t see any signal we could make. I 
hope she is not bound up the river. If she is 
she will be out of reach in a few moments.” 

think she is coming down to meet us,” 
I said. 

The reason for this supposition was the 
distant view I had caught of two men on the 
cutter’s quarter-deck. One of them was an 


254 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


officer, for the sheen of gold lace was dis- 
cernible even at that distance in the rays of 
the declining sun. The other was not an 
officer. He was not a member of the cutter’s 
company, for he was dressed in civilian at- 
tire. The exclamation that now burst from 
Denny did not take me by surprise. 

^ ^ There he is again ! Do you see him ? ’ ’ said 
Denny, without removing the glass from his 
eyes. The man with the long-tailed coat, 
I mean. He ’s pointing in this direction. ’ ’ 

My own observation thus verified, I took 
action that surprised my crew. Signing to 
Perry to man the sheets, I brought the Ty- 
coon about and headed down the river again. 

^‘What caper are you cutting now. Cap- 
tain Tiptop demanded Denny excitedly. 
‘‘Are you going to run away from her?” 

“I am going to take up the course she will 
soon adopt. She will soon overhaul us.” 

Then I told them that the hour had come 
for the closing scenes in the story of our ad- 
ventures with the smugglers, and informed 
them what part I purposed to play in the 
denouement, and what was desired of them. 
They agreed that the action I contemplated 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


255 


was a necessary one, and made no objections. 

Complying with my purpose, the sloop 
was sailed down stream to a point opposite 
my father’s house. With the glass I 
searched the shore.' There was nobody in 
sight on the river side of the dwelling. 

All this time the cutter was drawing 
nearer. When my companions landed me at 
the Tycoon’s wharf, she was within hailing 
distance. As I struck out through the wood 
path toward the house I heard her speed bell 
ring, and knew that she would lay to, long 
enough for Perry and Denny to board her 
and tell their story. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


Eckert Plays His Last Card, 

Without waiting to observe the move- 
ments of my companions in the sloop’s 
tender, or the actions of the revenue cutter, I 
hurried toward the house. 

By this time the sun was below the hori- 
zon, and though it would not be dark for an 
hour it was dusky among the trees along the 
path. Xo sound or sign of activity was 
manifest at the rear of the dwelling. I rea- 
soned that my uncle and his son, and possibly 
Harvey Brott and his wife, were together 
at the front, and their position would leave 
the way clear for me. Mounting the back 
steps with cautious tread I entered the 
kitchen. 

The kitchen was bathed in the shadows of 
the falling night, and was silent and de- 
serted. As I made my way toward the cellar 

256 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 257 

stairs, voices sounded at tlie front of the 
house, and I paused to listen. 

^^They ought to be here soon after dark; 
for they must be anchored somewhere, not 
far down stream.’’ 

This speech was voiced by Tony, and to 
it my uncle made response : 

^^You had better go dovm to the wharf in 
a few minutes and see if they are in sight 
yet.” 

The voice of Harvey Brott was next heard, 
but he always spoke low, and I could not 
hear what he said. I thought of the cutter, 
at that moment lying off the wharf, and if I 
had not realized before that current affairs 
w^ere verging on the climax I had the fact 
borne in upon me now. 

Without waiting any longer to listen to 
the talk of the conspirators in the library, I 
made my way down the cellar stairs. 

A place of concealment in the cellar was 
what I sought, and I was not long in finding 
one. The boxes which had composed the 
Sebewa’s cargo, half-filled the space below 
stairs, and they had not been piled with 
any great regard for order. In a nook next 

17 


258 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


the exterior wall, concealed from the view 
of any one descending the stairs, I found as 
good a hiding-place as I could have desired. 
Besides, it was dark in the cellar, even in the 
day time, for the narrow windows up under 
the ceiling admitted little light. 

In the nook in the pile of boxes, accord- 
ingly, I took my stand, and waited. My 
heart was beating fast, and I felt provoked 
that I could not better control my feelings. 

Perry afterward told me what occurred 
outside the house. When the cutter came 
to a stand-still opposite the wharf, he and 
Denny pulled off and boarded the vessel. As 
they clambered up the accommodation-lad- 
der a boat put off amidships, and while they 
were in the cutter’s cabin a party of the 
cutter’s men were surrounding the house. 

Though Perry and Denny did not know it 
at the time, the man of the soft felt hat and 
the long-tailed coat went ashore as a pas- 
senger in the boat, and he attended to the 
placing of the marines about the dwelling 
in such position that nobody could leave it 
without being apprehended. 

While my two friends had their interview 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


259 


in the cutter cabin with the conunander of 
the vessel, the vessel herself was proceeding 
down the river. Perry was the narrator on 
this occasion, and he afterwards said that he 
was surprised, not to say a little disap- 
pointed, to find that his story did not create 
as much of a sensation as he expected it 
would. The cutter’s commander seemed to 
know all about the affairs of the smugglers, 
and it was plain that he also knew a great 
deal about the movements of the Tycoon. It 
did not take my friends long to discern that 
the revenue men had laid their plans care- 
fully, and that each succeeding event had 
been foreseen and provided for, as witness 
the present movements of their vessel. 

The cutter held on her way down the 
stream, and a sharp look-out was kept ahead. 
When a subordinate officer entered the cabin 
with the announcement that the Sebewa had 
been sighted the commander brought the 
talk with the Tycoon’s crew to an abrupt 
conclusion. He went on deck, and Perry 
and Denny went with him. 

From the forward deck of the cutter they 
could see the Sebewa, with all sail set, mak- 


260 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


ing the most of the light breeze in the effort 
to get across the river and into Canadian 
waters. The cutter was at this time making 
a good showing as to speed, but she at once 
headed away on a course to intercept the 
fugitive, and clapped wings to her feet. 

Captain Eckert and Jesse Brott were not 
long in learning that they were certain of 
being headed off before they could get across 
the international boundary line, and it was 
doubtful, too, that the cutter would stop at 
the line. 

The evil-doers took steps to compass their 
personal safety, without regard for their 
vessel. They were fated to lose the Sebewa, 
and no doubt, as Denny expressed it later, 
Captain Eckert had visions of what the in- 
side of a prison cell looked like, if he had not 
experienced imprisonment at some time in 
his career previous to this. The spectators 
on the decks of the revenue cutter saw the 
schooner come up into the wind, and a mo- 
ment later she was discovered to be drifting 
with the current. Her crew had abandoned 
her. 

Now a long-boat was discovered in the 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


261 


gloom, pulling away from the farther side of 
the Sebewa, and headed for the nearest 
point of land, which was on the Michigan 
side. So little way had the schooner made 
from the shore in the light breeze that it 
looked as though the smugglers would be 
able to gain the river bank and the woods, 
before the cutter’s men 'could intercept 
them. 

It became a race between the revenue ves- 
sel and the rowboat— between eight oars in 
the hands of lusty oarsmen with every in- 
centive to strenuous effort, and the paddle- 
wheels of the steamer. There must have 
been an exciting time of it for a moment, 
and while I was having some excitement of 
my own at the same period, I have always re- 
gretted that I was not there’ to see the fun. 
It terminated when the cutter dashed in be- 
tween the row-boat and the land so close to 
the shore that everybody but the wheelsman 
momentarily expected her to go aground. 

A stern command from the cutter’s deck 
caused the men at the oars to cease rowing. 
A moment later they were taken on board. 
Perry and Denny stood at the rail when they 


262 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


came over, and Captain Eckert turned a look 
upon them that spoke eloquently of what 
he would have done had he been in a position 
to wreak vengeance upon them. 

After capturing the schooner’s crew, who 
were found to have all taken to the boat, the 
cutter picked up the Sebewa, and with the 
prize in tow, headed back up the river. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


Frustrated Designs. 

While the revenue cutter was engaged in 
the chase and capture of the Sebewa, events 
of an interesting nature, as has been inti- 
mated, were occurring at the house. Though 
I was not a participant in all of these, of 
course it was not long before I was informed 
about them. 

Cooped in my nook in the pile of boxes in 
the cellar I was shut off from the outer 
world. > I waited for what seemed to me a 
very long time, but which could not have 
been more than fifteen minutes, before I 
heard any sounds on the floor above. Then 
foot-steps approached the kitchen regions. 
As it would be a wise measure to ascertain 
the exact disposition of the enemy, when the 
foot-steps were heard to pass the head of the 
cellar stairs I stole forth and cautiously 

263 


264 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


mounted the flight, till my head was on a 
level with the ground floor. The party which 
had deployed from the front of the house 
was composed of my uncle and his son. 

‘^Go down to the wharf, Tony, and take a 
look down the river,’’ I heard my uncle say. 
‘‘It is pretty nearly dark, and the Sebewa 
ought to be somewhere near by, by this time. 
The minute you sight the schooner come 
back here and tell me, and Brott and I’ll 
have the cellar door open to take in the 
goods.” 

Tony said something indicating that he 
understood, and was heard to start down the 
steps. All at once he halted and cried out : 

“AVlio’s thatl Hello, there!” 

“What is it*?” demanded his father, who 
had turned to re-enter the house, and who 
now came hurrying back. 

“I saw somebody cross the path down 
there under the trees. It looked like a man 
with a uniform on.” 

“Nonsense!” said his father; but he low- 
ered his voice. 

“No nonsense about it! I tell you I did,” 
averred the boy stoutly. “I saw a man with 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


365 


a uniform on, go across the path and behind 
one of the trees/’ 

^‘It must be Brott, then, and you were mis- 
taken about the uniform. Nobody but Brott 
and his wife is about the place, except us.” 

^ ‘ That ’s where you ’re off : ’twasn ’t Brott, ’ ’ 
insisted Tony. “ Brott ’s in the library, 
where we just left him; and Mrs. Brott is 
upstairs where he sent her as soon as it be- 
gan to get dark. I tell you I did see the uni- 
form!” 

. By this time Tony had also lowered his 
voice. 

^‘Wait and watch!” his father com- 
manded ; and then they both drew back into 
the passage-way. 

For several minutes there was silence. It 
may be imagined how eagerly I listened. 
Then finally— 

‘‘Have you seen him again?” I heard my 
uncle ask. “I haven’t seen anything that 
looks like a man.” 

“Maybe I was mistaken, but I don’t be- 
lieve I was,” said Tony doubtfully. 

“Of course you were ! Now, go ahead, and 
look for the schooner. ’ ’ 


266 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


don’t know whether I want to go out 
there, or not.” 

‘‘What are you afraid of?” 

“Of the police, to be sure !” 

“Nonsense, I tell you! What would the 
police be around here for?” 

“They’d be around here all right enough, 
if they knew what’s going on. And maybe 
they do.” 

‘ ‘ How could they know ? ’ ’ 

“Maybe Cousin Hugh has got away from 
Captain Eckert.” 

“You’re talking nonsense, Tony!” re- 
peated Silas Lupton impatiently. “If you 
w^on’t go down to the wharf I suppose I’ll 
have to go.” 

“I don’t think there’s any use of any- 
body going, but I’ll take the chance,” and 
Tony was heard to descend the steps again. 

This time he kept on. Every moment I 
expected to hear a challenge under the trees 
behind the house. I believed Tony had seen 
a man in uniform there, if his father did not. 
. Silas Lupton stood for some time in the 
door- way looking after his son, and probably 
he followed Tony with his eyes till the boy 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


267 


disappeared in the shadow of the grove. 
Then he started to walk back to the front 
of the house. He was met half-way by 
Harvey Brott. The first words spoken by 
my father’s man-servant, though couched in 
his usual low tone, betrayed excitement ; and 
as I had made bold to advance up the cellar 
stairs till I stood in the doorway, I plainly 
heard what he said : 

‘^Mr. Lupton, there’s strange doings go- 
ing on around this house.” 

‘^What d’ye mean?” demanded the other; 
and I could almost fancy I heard his teeth 
chatter. 

was just looking through the library 
window, and I saw a man cross the driveway 
in front of the house. Then I saw another 
one walking along in the shadow of the trees 
on the east side. They both had uniforms 
on. I believe the house is surrounded by 
revenue men.” , 

^Ht can’t be— I won’t believe it!” My 
uncle’s voice sounded as though he was go- 
ing to burst into tears. ^ ^ What ’s that ? ’ ’ 

^^That” was a footstep on the veranda 
before the front hall door. 


268 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


“The revenue men!^’ ejaculated Harvey 
Brott. 

My uncle uttered a cry of terror and 
bounded out on the rear porch. 

This movement elicited a challenge from 
somebody out under the trees. 

“Halt, there!’’ 

It was echoed by a cry in the voice of Tony 
Lupton : 

“Run pa! They’re here,— and they’ve 
got me. ’ ’ 

My uncle leaped off the end of the porch,— 
but a movement on the part of Harvey Brott 
had driven me into the cellar. 

As my uncle made a break for liberty, 
Brott dodged into the cellar-way; and as I, 
for my part, retreated toward the pile of 
boxes, he came tumbling dowm the stairs. I 
hid in my old nook and peered forth at him. 

This was precisely the movement I was 
expecting from this particular ally of Cap- 
tain Eckert. The skipper had not relied on 
the wit or courage of my uncle to cope with 
such an emergency as this. Harvey Brott 
had his instructions to destroy the evidence 
against the smugglers in case the house was 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


269 


entered by the authorities, and he was at this 
moment intent on carrying out his orders. 

I had not noticed a pile of old papers and 
other combustible materials which had been 
placed under the cellar stairs and saturated 
with kerosene, but I now discovered it as 
Brott, with lighted match in hand, advanced 
in that direction. Realizing what would 
happen if the match were dropped into that 
inflammable stuff and the blaze allowed to 
spread I sprang from my concealment and 
grappled with him. 

Quick as I was, he was too quick for me. 
I knocked down his hand, but the match 
fell among the papers and the flames leaped 
up in our faces. I attempted to drag him 
back so that I might stamp out the blaze, but 
. he clung to me. For an instant it looked as 
though the building would be burned, and 
us with it ; for the stairs were on fire ! 

Amidst stifling smoke and fumes of oil, we 
struggled. Now in his frenzy he seemed in- 
tent on hurling me into the blazing mass. 
He was an old man and crippled with 
rheumatism, but the strength and agility he 
displayed in that supreme moment would 


270 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


have done credit to an athlete. I shouted for 
help. 

From above there c^me an answering cry. 
Down the brilliantly lighted stairs bounded 
a familiar figure. A grip of steel was fas- 
tened on the throat of my adversary and he 
was torn from my grasp and hurled half-way 
across the cellar. 

‘^Captain Rodman!’’ gasped the incen- 
diary. 

My father made no response, but picking 
up a piece of board he raked out the burn- 
ing paper from under the stairs. I had 
whipped off my coat and was beating out the 
fire, where it had caught on the stair-case. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


An Explanation, 

I have reached the last entry in the Ty- 
coon's log-book, devoted to that period in my 
career as a yachtsman which had to do with 
Captain Eckert and my uncle, Silas Lupton. 
It is a single line. It reads : 

^^Explanation by my father.’’ 

The line suffices to recall all that needs to 
be told of events subsequent to the arrest of 
the smugglers. 

The man who had bounded down the stairs 
in response to my call for help was my fa- 
ther, as has been indicated by the cry of 
Harvey Brott. The reader probably 
guessed long ago that he was the man with 
the soft felt hat and the long-tailed coat, 
which -was an attire he had adopted when he 
set about collecting evidence against his half- 
brother and Captain Eckert. 


272 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


Not till the day after the arrest of the law- 
breakers did my parent give an explana- 
tion of his singular conduct in this a:ffair. 
He went on board the cutter with the pris- 
oners, Silas Lupton, Tony and Harvey 
Brott, when they were conducted thither by 
the officer in command of the cutter’s party 
to join the other prisoners in the cutter’s 
cabin. From the cutter the captives were 
later conducted to the Wayne County jail in 
Detroit. I may as well tell at this point 
what was their pimishment, where punish- 
ment was meted out. 

The smugglers did not give the Govern- 
ment the trouble and expense of trying them, 
but pleaded guilty. The skipper of the 
Sebewa and Silas Lupton were each sen- 
tenced to three years in the penitentiary and 
to pay a large fine, and the schooner, of 
which they were joint owners, and her cargo, 
were confiscated. Jesse Brott and his fa- 
ther, as accomplices, received sentences of 
one year each, which seemed to me to be 
small punishment for their offense. Tony 
Lupton was not included in the indictment 
against the wrong-doers, nor were the fore- 


OF SLOOP-YACHT TYCOON 


27a 


mast hands of the Sebewa. As I understood 
it, they were not held responsible for the 
misdeeds of their superiors, being, by the law 
which governs the conduct of seamen, com-' 
polled to obey orders. Certain accomplices 
of the smugglers living in the queen’s do- 
main were shown up in the confession which 
Silas Lupton made, and there was talk of 
their being proceeded against; but if they 
ever were brought to book I never heard of 
it. 

Mr. Alvord, my father’s lawyer, was a 
visitor at the house the day after the cap- 
ture of the smugglers. To him and me my 
father explained how the law-breakers had 
come into temporary possession of the place. 

executed a note in favor of a certain 
business man some time ago,” said he, and 
told who the man was. ‘‘The note was se- 
cured with a mortgage on this place. It 
was given in order that I might assist a 
friend who was in financial trouble. In some 
manner Silas Lupton heard of it. He had 
made overtures to me with a view of buying 
this place, but I did not care to sell. He pro- 
ceeded to buy up the note I had given, prob- 
18 


274 


CAPTAIN TIPTOP 


ably believing that I would be unable to meet 
it. I am frank to say that I never liked my 
half-brother, and I did not object to allow- 
ing him to harbor a delusion. I had the 
money at hand with which to pay the note, 
and have it now. 

“When Lupton wrote me that he wanted 
to take possession of this place before the 
paper fell due, the proposition struck me as 
being humorous in the excess of impudence 
it displayed. I suppose I am not like most 
people, and I did what few persons would 
have done— told Lupton he was at liberty to 
come on and settle himself in my house. 

“But I did not give him this permission 
till after I saw him at Algonac, and it was 
while I was there that I grew to suspect the 
truth about my very respectable half- 
brother and his friend. Captain Eckert. I 
looked up the record of both for the last few 
years, and set about trapping them. The 
commander of the Fessenden is a friend of 
mine of long standing and he helped me to 
accomplish my purpose, as you have seen. 
Hugh and his friends did their share. And 
now, let’s bury the whole matter.” 


OF SLOOP- YACHT TYCOON 


275 


And bury it lie did. I never heard him 
speak of it again. 

Naturally, Perry and Denny and I, as well 
as Thyra, could not be so indifferent. The 
career and capture of the smugglers was a 
theme often gone over during subsequent 
cruises of the Tycoon, and when I visited at 
the Benson home. One of the Tycoon’s sub- 
sequent cruises was the interrupted trip to 
Mackinaw. 

Of course I did not wait as long to pay my 
devoirs to Thyra and thank her for what she 
had done in my behalf, as my dilatory men- 
tion of the fact may lead you to suppose. 
Thyra and I are the best of friends— you 
will not expect me to say more, though I 
could write much on this theme, which is 
an interesting one to me, though it might 
not prove so interesting to others. 


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SEP 29 








